Sunday, December 9, 2018

Marie Antoinette Pendant

     Jewelry that was made and owned by Marie Antoinette was sold at auction by Sotheby's recently.  



     I absolutely love every piece!  I am going to make that necklace - and not in cup chain as I have seen others do...but I digress.

Original

     One of the items I was asked to make was the pendant with pearl (above).  The original was sold for $36.1 million.  Holy mother of pearl!  The below is the result.  Now, I was asked to make another and have done so and it will be on its way to the intended soon.

     A lot went into making them.  I had to find just the right pieces.  I converted an existing earring into the main pendant, added crystal chain, a bow, and large vintage glass pearl.  I would say overall, it came out great!  I was encouraged to make more; however, I don't like to flood the market with things - then everyone is walking around with them!  Plus, I have a finite pairs of these earrings, and they are lovely to wear on their own.


My Reproduction

     Just love love love the rest of the jewelry.  The really awesome thing to see is the way the earrings are.  We now use leverback and put them into our ears from the front and they close in the back.  But in the day if an earwire wasn't put on to go into the front of the ear, they built the leverback onto the back of the earring and it was put in through the back of the ear, and the front closed and went into a small hole to secure it in the front.  You can just see that in the earrings below.  I own an original pair of earrings that closes just like these.


USA Today