A rare Sèvres porcelain bust of Général Napoléon Bonaparte - image-1
A rare Sèvres porcelain bust of Général Napoléon Bonaparte - image-2
A rare Sèvres porcelain bust of Général Napoléon Bonaparte - image-3
A rare Sèvres porcelain bust of Général Napoléon Bonaparte - image-1A rare Sèvres porcelain bust of Général Napoléon Bonaparte - image-2A rare Sèvres porcelain bust of Général Napoléon Bonaparte - image-3

Lot 809 Dα

A rare Sèvres porcelain bust of Général Napoléon Bonaparte

Auction 1140 - overview Cologne
15.11.2019, 17:00 - Important Porcelain from Two Private Collections
Estimate: 6.000 € - 8.000 €
Result: 7.440 € (incl. premium)

A rare Sèvres porcelain bust of Général Napoléon Bonaparte

Fired in two parts and screw mounted. Facing slightly left and mounted on a blue plinth, wearing the laurel of civil justice. Incised "a II" (presumably for "an II", 2nd year of the republic). H 28 cm.
Sèvres, 1793, probably after a model by Louis Simon Boizot.

Following the conquest of the royalist town of Toulon, Napoleon was proclaimed "général de brigade" on 22nd December 1793. This is thought to be the first model made of this bust.

Provenance

Westphalian private collection, acquired in 2004 from Angela Gräfin Wallwitz.

Literature

An identical bust in the Musée national de céramique, Sèvres, inv. no. MNC 30418, another in the collection of the Musée des arts décoratifs (inv. no. 30418).
An identical but later bust in The Walters Art Museum Baltimore, USA, inv. no. 48.1002.
Cf. Loesch, Die Napoleonische Schenkung, Dresden 1993, nor. 58.
According to the dating this bust is the earliest known version of the model.