How Much Pawn Stars Paid For Post-Napoleonic Royal Jewels
Whether you love European history, jewels fit for a queen, or the very best of button collections, there's an episode of History's hit reality television show Pawn Stars that you just have to check out. The show has been sharing the most interesting and hard-to-find items that have come into the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, located just outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, since its premiere in 2009, and the Harrison family, who operates the shop, are always pleased to see rare and unique objects.
The 2012 Pawn Stars episode "Love Me Spender" (per IMDb) sees Rick and Corey presented with a case of 12 beautiful paste diamond buttons supposedly owned by the famously beheaded queen of France, Marie Antoinette. The pawn shop owners would love to have such a rare piece of history in their possession, but they soon discover that while the sparkling buttons almost certainly do have a connection to the royalty of France, it wasn't with the ill-fated queen. With that, we've got the deets on just how much the shop owners paid for these post-Napoleonic royal jewels.
A customer asks the Pawn Stars boys for $10K for his set of royal buttons
The customer who brings in the stunners is a rare book dealer who, in an aside, says he wants to sell them because he "doesn't deal in buttons." He would like to get $10,000 for the unusual set. Back in the shop, Rick asks how the seller knows the buttons belonged to Marie Antoinette, and the customer points to the House of Bourbon coat of arms, which he says the queen would have had on all of her possessions.
This piques Rick's interest, and he notes that the paste diamonds (glass with lead melted into it) on the buttons are "definitely something fancy enough to be worn by a queen." In his own aside, Rick acknowledges that the items, especially the complete set, are a rare find and that he's confident there's a market for them, especially given their possible connection to a famous figure of French royalty.
Pawn Stars paid $3,500 for the set of jeweled buttons owned by post-Napoleonic French royalty
Unfortunately, the seller doesn't get what he asks for because Rick points out that the coat of arms printed on the box is a version used by the French royalty long after Marie Antoinette lost her head.
After some haggling, the pair settle on $3,500 for the set of 12 buttons, which Rick points out is still of interest to collectors. He also notes that his buy will be even more worthwhile if it's possible to find out exactly who the bejeweled buttons belonged to. The seller was happy for Corey's encouragement after accepting the $3,500 offer for the royal jewels, noting he was "strangely interested in the buttons."
In the end, the Pawn Stars stars seemed to get a good deal by only paying $3,500 for the set of post-Napoleonic royal jewels. The buttons are a fascinating piece of history, even if they weren't owned by Marie Antoinette.