Sotheby’s Geneva will auction the 1862 Mellerio Orléans Tiara on November 11, with an estimate of 780,000 to 1,100,000 Swiss francs, or roughly $946,000 to $1.33 million.
The piece was crafted by the venerable Parisian house Mellerio dits Meller for the London International Exhibition, where it first dazzled European elite.
Its Greek Revival design, featuring a meander pattern, echoes the style Napoleon III adopted after acquiring the Campana collection for the Louvre in 1861.
In 1864, Antoine d’Orléans, Duke of Montpensier, bought the tiara and presented it to his daughter Marie Isabelle for her wedding to Philippe d’Orléans, Count of Paris, the French royal claimant.
The heirloom passed through Marie Isabelle’s son Ferdinand, survived a Spanish marriage, and vanished after the 1957 death of his wife, whose secret marriage to her secretary left the tiara in obscurity.
Auction houses have shown that royal jewels can exceed estimates, as a Savoy tiara sold for $1.6 million in 2021. Buyers now await whether the Mellerio Orléans Tiara will follow suit.
The sale, scheduled for next month, is expected to attract collectors and numismatists, with the outcome likely to set a new benchmark for 19th‑century royal jewelry.