An elegant white shoe made of silk and goat leather that belonged to Marie Antoinette, France’s last queen before the 1789 revolution, was sold for 43,750 euros ($51,780) on Sunday, the auctioneers said.

The sale took place in the Palace of Versailles, where the queen – who went down in history as a symbol of the excesses of the French monarchy – and King Louis XVI held court before they were guillotined in 1793.  

The 22.5 centimetre-long (8.8 inches) shoe, adorned with four ribbons near its tip, was in good condition apart from slight wear of the silk, the Osenat auction house said.

The shoe has Queen’s name on its heel and Jean-Pierre Osenat of the auction house said that the shoe was to have been worn regularly as a part of her daily life at the palace. 

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With international collectors showing strong interest, Osenat said the price quickly rose from the reserve of 8,000 to 10,000 euros ($9,450 to $11,800) and was snapped up by an unidentified buyer.

In the turmoil of the French Revolution the shoe ended up in the hands of Marie-Emilie Leschevin, a close friend of the queen’s head chambermaid.

Her family held on to it for generations before it came to auction i.e., 227 years after her death.

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Marie Antoinette — born an Austrian archduchess — was the wife of Louis XVI.

Last year an exhibition at the Conciergerie, the former Paris prison where she was incarcerated before her execution, retraced changes in the representation of the last French queen through paintings, mangas, films and even Barbie dolls.