A Royal Wardrobe Trunk With Ties to Marie Antoinette Can Now Be Yours


You can now transport your favorite frocks just like a certain stylish sovereign.

A late-18th-century royal traveling trunk with ties to Marie Antoinette is heading to auction via Sotheby’s this week, with an estimate of $80,000 to $120,000. The exceptionally rare memento offers up a link to the famed Queen of France’s life at Versailles and a connection to the queen’s influential wardrobe and taste, too.

The traveling trunk is believed to have belonged to Marie Antoinette’s own suite in Versailles. Made from oak and cypress, it features studded leather and wrought iron mounts alongside twin locks and folding iron handles, details that Sotheby’s says show off the grandeur of life at the palace while remaining practical for daily use. The domed lid, meanwhile, has an inscription that reads “Garderobe de la Reine N° 19,” or “Queen’s Wardrobe No. 19.”

Each trunk was numbered to keep track of the royal garments inside.

Sotheby’s

Wardrobe trunks such as the one on offer played a specific role in life at court, carrying garments, linens, and other personal effects from one royal residence to another as monarchs switch up their abode based on the season—from, say, residences like Palaces of Fontainebleau. Since the trunks were home to a royal’s most beloved items, they were standardized, numbers, and inventoried, too, to ensure nothing was left behind or lost. The system was especially important considering that clothing played such a pivotal role at court, as a symbol of diplomacy and identity. (That was certainly the case for Marie Antoinette, whose perceived extravagance and lavish taste for fashion and other aspects of life eventually lead to her execution in 1793.)

“This extraordinary royal wardrobe trunk offers a rare connection to the world of Versailles, where fashion, ceremony, and power were inseparable,” Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s global head of handbags and fashion, said in a press statement. “Its survival into the present day—traveling from the orbit of the French court to a private collector in Brooklyn—underscores both its historical importance and the fragility of objects that once moved through the most closely guarded spaces of royal life.”

Only a handful of these royal traveling trunks are known to exist, with many residing in museums or palace collections. No. 8 and No. 9, for example, can be found at Versailles and the Trianon estate.

Accompanying the trunk at Sotheby’s Handbags and Trunks: Including Property of An Important Private Collector sale are a set of five vintage Louis Vuitton Monogram canvas Alzer trunks (expected to fetch between $15,000 and $30,000), an Hermès White Matte Niloticus Crocodile Himalaya Birkin 25 with palladium hardware ($100,00 to $180,000). Bidding for the coveted collectibles starts on June 11, and extends until June 23—though to sneak a peek at the collection, you can head to the Breur Building today, too.





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