Crenellated porcelain cooler of Etruscan shape, boot handle, for twelve glasses, decorated in gold with a seedling and a frieze of myrtle, the center decorated with the crowned number of King Louis XVIII in a crown of laurels in gold, having replaced that of the Emperor Napoleon I, which can be seen crossed out below (a crowned N).
Sèvres Imperial Factory, 1808.
Red stamp mark crossed out under the Restoration.
Cracks.
H. 14.5 x L. 34 x D. 23.5 cm.
- Service of the Officers of the Emperor Napoleon I.
- Service of the Officers (or called the Princes) of King Louis XVIII.
The third service of the imperial table after that of the Emperor and the Grand Marshal was that of the Officers or "crowned N number" (so called in the archives of the Manufacture de Sèvres). It was decorated with the cipher of the sovereign with a frieze of myrtle - or willow in Compiègne - in gold, and was used in most residences of the Empire. When Louis XVIII arrived on the throne of France, he reused the majority of the pieces present in the palaces and in particular the number service, taking care to have Sèvres replaced the monogram and the imperial crown with the double. L under a fleur-de-lis wreath. This service is jointly called Officers or Princes under the Restoration.
Two identical coolers dated 1808 and 1809, with the cipher of Louis XVIII, are kept at the National Museum of the Château de Fontainebleau, one of which is illustrated in the exhibition catalog: La cave de Joséphine, Le vin sous l'Empire at Malmaison, RMN, Paris, 2009, cat. 158 p. 81.