Exhibition labels & didactics - National Gallery of Victoria

232
MANUFACTURE DE SÈVRES manufacturer
France est. 1756
Four dessert plates from Napoleon’s
personal dinner service, known as the
Headquarters service
Quatre assiettes du service particulier
de l’Empereur
1807–11
porcelain (hard-paste)
Al-Miqyâs
Le Miqyas
Molke. (Melk Abbey Austria)
Molke (L’abbaye de Melk, Autriche)
View of the lighthouse of Alexandria
Vue du phare d’Alexandrie
Regatta of Venice
Régate de Venise
Fondation Napoléon, Paris
Donation Lepeyre inv. 414-415, inv. 417-418
In 1807, Napoleon commissioned the
Sèvres manufactory to make a table service
for his personal use. Its dessert plates
included views selected by Napoleon
himself, depicting sites from his Egyptian
and European conquests. After his second
abdication, Napoleon was authorized to
take sixty of these plates with him into exile.
Shipped to St Helena in green leather
boxes – one of which is shown here –
this exceptional service was not used on
the dining table there but was constantly
admired by the defeated Emperor, who
often looked at it.
© COPYRIGHT
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