Not sure where this belongs, I found it interesting because it was so long ago.

It was taken from two articles and I've cleaned it up a bit. Apologies for any editing errors.

Kosa Pan

(From Wikipedia)

Pan known by his rank Chao Phraya Kosathibodi (Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade) or former rank Ok Phra Wisut Sunthon (First-Class Diplomat) or by the nickname Kosa Pan, was a Siamese diplomat and minister who led the Second Siamese Embassy to France sent by king Narai in 1686. He was preceded to France by the First Siamese Embassy to France, which had been composed of two Siamese ambassadors and Father Bénigne Vachet, who had left Siam for France on January 5, 1684. His brother, Lek, also ranked Chao Phraya Kosathibodi (left?) before him.

Kosa Pan left for France in 1686, accompanying the return of the 1685 French embassy to Siam of Chevalier de Chaumont and François-Timoléon de Choisy on two French ships. The embassy was bringing a proposal for an eternal alliance between France and Siam and stayed in France from June 1686 to March 1687. Kosa Pan was accompanied by two other Siamese ambassadors, Ok-luang Kanlaya Ratchamaitri and Ok-khun Sisawan Wacha, and by the Jesuit Father Guy Tachard.

Kosa Pan's embassy was met with a rapturous reception and caused a sensation in the courts and society of Europe. The mission landed at the French port of Brest before continuing its journey to Versailles, constantly surrounded by crowds of curious onlookers.

The "exotic" clothes as well as manners of the envoys (including their kowtowing (wai-ing?) to Louis XIV during their visit to him on September 1, 1686), together with a special "machine" that was used to carry King Narai's missive to the French monarch caused much comment in French high society. Kosa Pan's great interest in French maps and images was commented upon in a contemporary issue of the Mercure Galant.

The embassy brought vast amounts of presents to Louis XIV. Among them were gold, tortoise shells, fabrics, carpets, more than 1,500 pieces of porcelain, as well as laquer furniture. Two silver Siamese cannons were given as present to Louis XIV, and by a strange twist of fate these cannons would be seized by French revolutionaries in 1789 to be used in the Storming of the Bastille

The embassy ordered vast amounts of French products to be shipped to the Siamese court: 4,264 mirrors similar to those of the Galerie des Glaces were ordered to decorate Narai's palace, through Colbert to the factory of Saint Gobain. Among other orders were 160 French cannons, telescopes, glasses, clocks and various velvet pieces and crystal decorative elements. They also ordered two geographical globes, inscribed in Thai by French artisans, as well as seven carpets from the Savonnerie manufactory.

The Siamese Embassy to France in 1686 had brought to the Court samples of multicolor Thai Ikat textiles. These were enthusiastically adopted by the French nobility to become Toiles flammées or Siamoises de Rouen often with checkered blue-and-white designs. After the French Revolution and its dislike for foreign luxury, the textiles were named "Toiles des Charentes" or cottons of Provence.

A fragmentary Siamese account of the mission compiled by Kosa Pan was re-discovered in Paris in the 1980s. The embassy's encounter with Louis XIV is depicted in numerous paintings of the period.

The embassy of Kosa Pan was soon followed by another one, led by Ok-khun Chamnan in 1688.

Upon his return to Siam, Kosa Pan became one of the strongest supporters of Petratcha, the ruler who eliminated Narai and ousted the French, and became his Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Kosa Pan is known to have been met in Siam in 1690 by the German naturalist Engelbert Kaempfer, who described "pictures of the Royal family of France and European maps" hanging "in the hall of his house"

"He is a more comely Person, and of better aspect, than I ever met amongst this black race of mankind... He is also quick of understanding and lively action, for which reasons he was a few years ago sent Ambassador to France, of which Country, its Government, Fortresses and the like, he would often entertain us in his discourses; and the hall of his House, where we had a private audience of him, was hung with the pictures of the Royal Family of France, and European Maps, the rest of his furniture being nothing but Dust and Cobwebs.

—Engelbert Kaempfer (1727/1987:38).

In 1699, Kosa Pan and Petracha received a visit by the Jesuit Father Guy Tachard, but the meeting remained purely formal and led to nothing.[9]

In 1700 Kosa Pan was disgraced, had his nose cut by king Petracha, and apparently committed suicide.

The Diary of Kosa Pan. Worth reading if you can get your hands on it:

Books: The Diary of Kosa Pan: Thai Ambassador to France, June-July 1686 (Paperback) by Visudh Busayakul (Author), Dirk Van Der Cruysse (Editor) and Michael Smithies (Editor)

I had always wondered about a french cameo ring that my mother gave to me to give to my wife. The ring had been given to my mother by her great Aunt Margaret Clarke who in turn had been given the ring by the current Majesty's father. Margaret Clarke had been governess to HRH and siblings when they were toddlers.

Although during the course of her duties she had spent alot of time in Europe in the 1930's, I had been told that the ring, just one of many trinkets given to her, was from the Royal Treasure and not a bought gift.

Being an antique french cameo, it was a bit incongruous to have come from an Asian court.

This article leads me to speculate on the origin of the ring.

Very interesting.

Empress Marie Antionette

A guess