RARE PETITE CUILLÈRE EN ARGENT AUX ARMES DE L’EMPEREUR NAPOLÉON IER PAR BIENNAIS PROVENANT DU PILLAGE DE LA BERLINE - Filet coffee spoon, silver 1st title (950 thousandths), the handle stamped with the large arms of Emperor Napoleon I.
Paris, 1809-1819.
2nd cock title mark and Minerve head guarantee mark.
Goldsmith's hallmark of Martin-Guillaume BIENNAIS (1764-1843).
Austrian General Control Mark, Saint Polten, 1810-1822.
L. 14.2 cm. Weight: 30.5 g.
Provenance
- Napoleon I's dinner service.
- Taken during the looting of the Emperor's sedan on the evening of June 18, 1815.
- Private collection, Paris.
Exhibition
Napoleon's sedan, the mystery of the spoils of Waterloo. Musée de la Légion d'Honneur, March 7 to July 8, 2012, p. 261 (illustrated).
History
Martin Guillaume Biennais is considered one of France's greatest silversmiths. Under the Empire, he was the goldsmith of the imperial court and, above all, the official goldsmith of Emperor Napoleon I. In 1802, he obtained exclusive rights to supply the Emperor's table. He produced a vermeil service and a silver service, which were completed in 1810 and 1811. All pieces received an inventory number engraved by Biennais in September 1812, so our unnumbered spoon is later than this date.
Coffee spoons from the surviving silver service are extremely rare, as we know that all the silver remaining in France was melted down in the 19th century, notably by Napoleon III. Thus, the remaining silverware can only have come from St. Helena or from the looting of the sedan at Waterloo (see Exhibition catalog, La berline de Napoléon, le mystère du butin de Waterloo. Musée de la Légion d'Honneur, March 7 to July 8, 2012, article by Anne Dion, p. 259).
Our spoon, bearing the famous Austrian General de Saint Polten control mark, therefore comes from the looting of the sedan on the evening of June 18, 1815 (all the silver taken from the sedan was later re-punched). The Emperor, caught in the traffic jam caused by the rout, had to leave his sedan in a hurry, leaving behind his bicorne and numerous personal effects, including his silverware. Prussian troops led by Blücher looted the sedan and shared the spoils.
An inventory by Louis XVIII's Intendant des Dépenses, Forestier, shows that the losses of "silverware that fell to the Allies in June 1815" were enormous, and included "33 teaspoons", making them rare compared with "104 knives" and "99 pieces of cutlery". Our spoon is thus one of the thirty-three looted at Waterloo in June 1815.
Related works
- An Emperor's cutlery set with a knife from the Berline, Millon sale, May 26, 2023, lot 141 (sold for €62,400).
- A cutlery from the looting of the Berline, sold at Kâ-Mondo, June 24, 2015, lot 147 (sold for €31,000).
- A spoon from the Emperor's service, in a case, with autograph label signed by Joseph Bonaparte, brother of the Emperor "Tiré du nécessaire de l'Empereur: donné par moi, à mon neveu François Clary. 1839". Sale April 24, 2011, Maître Bailleul (Bayeux).
- A set of five table spoons, five table forks, three teaspoons and six table knives, sold at Christie's, Paris, December 19, 2007, lot 173 (sold for €162,000).
Estim. 4,000 - 6,000 EUR