Afterlives of the Persian Gifts to Versailles

Abstract

The fate of diplomatic gifts after their presentation can reveal patterns of instability and shifting narratives on the items themselves and how they were perceived and received at the time. Often, these important pieces of material evidence disappear or are decontextualised from their exchange. This has been the case with the Persian embassy to Louis XIV's court at Versailles in 1715, where the gifts that were presented to the Sun King were thought to have been lost. This paper traces the afterlives of two of the gifted items: a string of pearls and two gold boxes of mumia. Each of these gifts were retained by the French administration and can be tracked through the eighteenth century. Their journeys reveal much about their evolving significances and the re-evaluations that occurred once they entered the French collections.