RARE ET PRÉCIEUSE MONTRE OFFERTE PAR LA REINE... Lot 88

RARE ET PRÉCIEUSE MONTRE OFFERTE PAR LA REINE CAROLINE MURAT, SŒUR DE L’EMPEREUR NAPOLÉON IER, ATTRIBUÉE À L’ORFÈVRE NITOT Collar watch with key, with gold case (750 thousandths), movement with cock signed on the plate "LE ROY À PARIS N° 5790". Enamelled dial with Roman numerals, translucent green enamelled cover on a guilloche background with a checkerboard center decorated with the Queen's number with a C under a royal crown surrounded by two laurel branches joined by a flower, the whole in gold enriched with small pearls, encircled by a series of fine pearls on the border. Reverse side with a green enamelled background, radiating guilloche, decorated with a series of gold stars and surrounded by pearls. Guilloche edge. Ring punched. Good condition. With a key with a straight stem and a bit with days. First Empire period, 1808-1815. Goldsmith : most probably Nitot et fils. Watchmaker : Maison Leroy (founded in Paris in 1785 by Basile-Charles Leroy, supplier to the Imperial Family from 1805). D. 3,5 cm. Gross weight : 34,6 g. Provenance - Present of Caroline Murat born princess Bonaparte, queen of Naples. - Italian branch of the Murats. History This model of watches by Nitot et fils (now Chaumet) was favored by Emperor Napoleon I and the Imperial Family. On September 4, 1811, "Twenty-six small watches of various collars, in enamelled gold, with surrounds, numbers, superb emblems and accompanied by their chains and keys [...]" were ordered to the famous jeweller by the Emperor (MAZE-SENCIER A. Les fournisseurs de Napoléon Ier et de deux Impératrices, Paris, 1893). Caroline-Marie-Annonciade BONAPARTE (1782-1839), third sister of Napoleon, born in Ajaccio on March 25, 1782, was barely eleven years old when she left Corsica to come and live in Marseille. She remained there until 1796, when Madame Mère moved to Paris. Napoleon, who loved her dearly, made her marry one of his bravest lieutenants, Joachim Murat, on January 20, 1800. Successively grand duchess of Berg and Cleves and placed on the throne of Naples in July 1808, Caroline proved herself worthy of her high position by her intelligence, her talents, the fine tact she showed in business. Radiant with grace and beauty, gifted with a cultivated mind, she exerted a great ascendancy over her husband, made up for the qualities that this valiant soldier lacked for the exercise of sovereignty, and held herself, as regent, the reins of the State with remarkable skill. Her accession to the throne was marked by acts of justice and humanity. She had the exiles recalled and the politically condemned released. Taking a very active part in the government of the kingdom, during a reign of only seven years, she achieved immense progress in Naples, founded useful establishments which still exist, protected sciences, letters and arts, called to the direction of the affairs of eminent men, and watched with solicitude the extension of the popular instruction. Gifted with a great firmness of soul and character, she was seen, after the naval battle of Milucola, to revive her subjects, walking impassively on the quay of La Chiaja in the middle of a rain of English cannonballs. Charged in 1810 by her brother to organize the house of Marie-Louise, Caroline went to meet her in Braunaw, but did not delay to alienate her good graces by her proud pretensions. She considered it an outrage to have been obliged to wear the mantle of the empress to the ceremonies of the marriage, and returned to Naples badly disposed against the court of Paris. Also, in 1813, when fortune began to get tired of favoring Napoleon, she caressed the ambition of Murat, who dreamed of the crown of the Lombard kings and the sovereignty of the Italian peninsula, and she did not oppose the treaties of January 6 and 11, 1814, concluded with Austria and England, treaties which threw her husband into the enemy ranks of France and of his benefactor. This ingratitude revolted the public opinion all the more that Caroline abandoned her brother, she who had only had to praise him, and that at the time of the reverses, when the members of her family who had had most to complain of his despotism approached him spontaneously. Also Madam Mother irritated did not want to see her any more and crushed her with these energetic and generous words: "You betrayed your benefactor, your brother, it would have been necessary that your husband passed on your corpse before arriving at a similar felony". After the execution of King Murat, she obtained later the authorization to live near her sister Elisa, in Trieste, with the title of countess of Lipona, anagram of Napoli, Italian name of Naples. "It was, says M. de Talleyrand, the head of Cromwell on the body of a pretty woman. (Extract from the Larousse dictionary of the 19th century). Related works - A similar watch attributed to NITOT offered by Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, sister of Emperor Napoleon I, lot 441 of the Osenat sale of November 20, 2016 (sold for €25,000). - A similar watch also