HISTORICAL MEMORIES MARIE-ANTOINETTE, Queen of... Lot 2

[HISTORICAL MEMORIES] MARIE-ANTOINETTE, Queen of France. Fragment of fabric from a stocking worn by the Queen, preserved in an envelope bearing the following handwritten inscription: "Bas de la Reine Marie-Antoinette. On May 17, 1878, this precious souvenir was given to me by Madame la vicomtesse de Lamotte, née d'Argence, niece of Mademoiselle Descloseaux. It was exhumed on January 18, 1815, from the Madeleine cemetery purchased by Monsieur Descloseaux, signed A de Boutray". Monsieur Louis Descloseaux (1732-1816), who had lived in a house next to the Madeleine cemetery since 1789, where Queen Marie-Antoinette and King Louis XVI were buried, had noted the precise location of their graves. Having acquired the plot in 1802, he enclosed it with walls, planted cypress trees and kept it closed until the Restoration. When, in 1815, King Louis XVIII undertook a search for the bodies of his brother and sister-in-law and offered them a descent burial, Monsieur Descloseaux indicated the exact location, which was confirmed to the King by Pierre Seveste, grandson of one of the gravediggers. He was present on the day the bodies were buried, and it was most likely on this occasion that he had this fragment of cloth removed. For this action, the King awarded him the Order of Saint-Michel and a pension for one of his daughters. Then, on January 11, 1816, he sold the land and house to Louis XVIII, on whose site the Chapelle expiatoire now stands. The relic was then passed on by his daughter to the Vicomtesse de Lamotte, as the handwritten note indicates. Provenance: - Sale of November 16, 2015, Paris, Maison de vente Couteau-Begarie.