Creative Commons License
Snuffbox with portraits of Napoleon I, Empress Marie-Louise, and the King of Rome
(18th and 19th Centuries )
This box is chiseled, partially enameled, and set with three oval portrait miniatures representing Napoleon I and his second wife, Marie-Louise, Duchess of Parma, and their son, the King of Rome after portraits by Isabey. Gold bees, the emblem of Napoleon, decorate the bottom and sides of the box and can be seen between the portraits. A similar group of three portraits is in the Wallace Collection, London. A presentation snuffbox of gold, set with similar miniatures of a larger size is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
1. Napoleon I (1767-1821) wearing the uniform of "chausseurs à cheval." Visible on his chest is the star of the Legion of Honor.
2. The "King of Rome" (1811-1832), Napoleon's son by his second wife the Empress Marie-Louise. He wears the band and star of the Legion of Honor.
3. Empress Marie-Louise (1791-1847), the daughter of Francis I of Austria, who married Napoleon in 1810.
The bees surrounding the miniatures were imperial symbols alluding to the Napoleon's royal predecessors, the Merovingian Frankish kings who ruled France from the 5th-8th centuries. Jewels discovered in their tombs were mistakenly identified as representing bees rather than cicadas.
Inscription
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
E. Joseph [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1]. Christopher Henry Hawkins, by purchase, January 30, 1890. William T. Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894, by inheritance; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
[1] small folded note, originally contained in the box, gives the provenance and includes a clipping from a sales catalogue, where this box is lot 46. A note in the curatorial file identifies the sale as being at Christies. The clipping also states that the box was presented to General Bernadotti by Naploeon I, and that the box contained a gold Order with the Imperial Eagle holding a medallion. This is no longer with the box.
Exhibitions
| 2006-2009 | Bedazzled: 5,000 Years of Jewelry from the Walters Art Museum. Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. |
| 1984 | Objects of Vertu: Precious Works of the Eighteenth Century. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. |
Geographies
France, Paris (Place of Origin)
Measurements
13/16 x 2 1/8 in. (2 x 5.4 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by William T. Walters
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
57.218