VINCENT MEYLAN

26 octobre 1967 : le monde entier suit la retransmission télévisée du couronnement du shah d''Iran, cérémonie d''un faste mémorable. Après avoir coiffé la couronne de diamants de son père, le souvera

Queens' Jewels is the result of a ten-year quest into the highly secretive realm of the collections of royal families throughout the world. The author has discovered the most precious jewels in existence-symbols of power and love-traces of a lost world. This lavish book relates the grandiose history of royal adornments, from the lost jewels of the last queen of Italy and the bloody odyssey of the Romanov crown to the story of the sapphire of the Countess of Paris and the treasures of the Catholic queens of Spain.

For centuries, the stories of the world's great jewellery collections have lain hidden within the archives of Christie's, the celebrated auctioneers. From the tragic European queens, Mary, Queen of Scots and Marie Antoinette - both beheaded - to Hollywood royalty such as Elizabeth Taylor, the vaults sparkle with the most celebrated (and occasionally notorious) names of the last 250 years. Following on from the success of his books on Boucheron: The Secret Archives, Van Cleef & Arpels: Treasures and Legends and Mellerio: Jewellers to the Queens of Europe, author Vincent Meylan explores these remarkable jewellery archives, revealing the mysteries within for the first time.