Marie Antoinette’s candelabras on sale at Paris house clearance par excellence

Hotel Lambert auction includes a silver tureen given by Catherine the Great and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor's sofa

It has been described as the sale of the century", an auction of more than 1,300 pieces of 17th to 20th-century furniture, art, jewels and interior decoration from one of Paris's grandest mansions.

The provenance of items reads like a scroll through the history of European aristocracy: a sofa belonging to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor; a silver tureen given by Catherine the Great to her lover Count Orlov; candelabras believed to have belonged to Marie Antoinette and Madame de Pompadour, King Louis XV's mistress.