LOT DETAILS

Materials:

Tortoiseshell, gold mounts

Size Notes:

miniature; box 2.5 x 7.7 x 4.9 cm

Description:

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Markings:

maker's mark, bear's head 3me titre, Paris grosse garantie and 3me titre for 1798-1809

Literature:

Related literature. Malmaison 2006, Jean-Baptiste Isabey (1767-1855) portraitiste de l'Europe , Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et de Bois-Préau, 2006

Provenance:

Princesse de la Moskowa (1820-1904). In 1872, Eugénie Bonaparte, later Princesse de la Moskowa, was born in Italy as the youngest daughter of Napoléon Charles Bonaparte, 5 th Prince of Canino and Princess Maria Cristina Ruspoli. As such, she was the granddaughter of Charles Bonaparte (1803-1857), who had married his cousin Zénaïde Bonaparte (1801-1854) in 1822 in Brussels. Charles's father, Lucien Bonaparte, and Zénaïde s father, Joseph Bonaparte, were both brothers of Napoléon I, Emperor of the French, meaning their grandparents were Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino. Portrait miniatures set into snuff boxes, intended as tokens of family affection and as a private memory, were often passed down through generations, such as this example with the portrait of Madame Mère de l'Empereur, owned by her great-great-great granddaughter Eugénie Bonaparte. Eugénie had received the title Princesse de la Moskowa in 1898 through marriage with Léon Napoléon Ney, 4th Prince de La Moskowa. This victory title had been created by Napoléon I for the Marshal Ney after the Battle of Borodino, which was fought during the French invasion of Russia on 7 September 1812 and was recorded as the deadliest day of the Napoleonic Wars