French Royal Tiara Unseen for 69 Years Heads to Geneva Auction

A diamond tiara unseen for roughly 69 years will be offered at auction in Geneva.

The Mellerio Orléans Tiara is headed to Sotheby's Geneva Royal and Noble Jewels Sale, according to Town & Country. It is a bandeau, a low band worn across the forehead or low on the hair, crafted around 1862.

The piece was made by Mellerio dits Meller, the Paris jewelry house, for the London International Exhibition of 1862. It is set with old mine-cut and rose-cut diamonds, early cutting styles known for a soft glow, arranged in a meander, or Greek key, pattern. It converts from a tiara into a necklace.

Two years after that London showing, the tiara was bought by Antoine d'Orléans, Duke of Montpensier, the youngest son of King Louis Philippe of France. He gave it as a wedding gift to his eldest daughter, Marie Isabelle d'Orléans, for her 1864 marriage to Philippe d'Orléans, Count of Paris.

Marie Isabelle d'Orléans, Countess of Paris, lived from 1848 to 1919. When she died, the tiara passed to her younger son, Ferdinand, Duke of Montpensier.

Ferdinand married a Spanish aristocrat in 1923 and died two years later. He left everything to his wife, who died in 1957. After that, the jewel dropped from public view.

What makes this stand out is how complete the chain remains. Exhibition piece to wedding gift to inheritance, all within one exiled French royal family. Few convertible jewels from the 1860s survive with that record intact.

Sotheby's lists an estimate of 300,000 to 500,000 CHF for the Mellerio dits Meller Diamond Tiara, according to Sotheby's.

The same Geneva sale will also include a tiara worn by the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Royal jewels have drawn strong bidding in Geneva before. A diamond and pearl tiara passed down through generations of Italy's royal family sold for $1.66 million in Switzerland, after it was offered with a $1 million to $1.5 million estimate, Reuters reported.