More bling

The Wittelsbach blue-grey 35.56 carat diamond that was given to Infanta Margarita Teresa by her father King Philip IV of Spain on her engagement to her uncle Leopold I of Austria, is to go on sale at Christie's in December, and is expected to fetch GBP10m.

Infanta Margarita Teresa was the central figure in Velazquez's picture Las Meninas (1656). She is also depicted in the first picture dressed in mourning, following the death of her father. She herself only lived to 21, having given birth to four children, of which only one survived beyond childhood.

Leopold I later became the Holy Roman Emperor, and the diamond then passed into the Austrian and then Bavarian crown jewels, before being sold into private hands in 1931.