Napoleon cameo in porcelain on Karelian porphyry, circa 1840

Cameo on porphyry
Frame in patinated wood
Sight size: H. 6; W. 4.8 (cm.)
Overall dimensions: H. 9; W. 7.5 (cm.)
Paris, Return of the Ashes period

Astonishing porcelain cameo on a fragment of Karelian porphyry. Blackened and re-patinated wood frame with moldings. Work from the period of erection of the Emperor's tomb at Les Invalides.

The Emperor's tomb
Louis Visconti (1791-1853) was responsible for the sarcophagus model of Napoleon I's tomb at Les Invalides, as well as for the choice of materials.
However, six years elapsed between the exhumation at Saint-Hélène and the supply of the raw materials required for construction. The impossibility of finding purple stone in France, Greece and even Egypt prompted the architect to prospect in Russia, where several deposits of quartzite with a color and appearance similar to porphyry were discovered...
The project's salvation depended on the agreement to exploit them and the political support of Tsar Alexander I, who made a totally Francophile gesture at a complicated time in relations between the two sovereigns.
It wasn't until 1849 that the porphyry blocks arrived in Paris. At Les Invalides, a steam engine was installed in 1851 to cut and shape the elements of the tomb.

Our cameo probably comes from scraps of material given to Visconti as compensation for his work on this project, which he never actually completed. He died before Napoleon III's grand inauguration on April 2, 1861.

Bibliography :
Touré J., Boulah A. G. De Shokcha à Paris. Histoire de la recherche, de l'extraction, de la Livraison et du traitement du quartzite de Shokcha pour le sarcophage de Napoléon, 2016

Condition report: very minor wear