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#FondationNapoléon #MartialLapeyre #MillonParis #GoldBoxes #EnamelPortraits #NapoleonicEra #Miniatures #Snuffboxes #Petitot #Zincke #Vachette #MarieLouise #17thCentury #19thCentury #AntiqueCollecting
The Fondation Napoléon is auctioning more than sixty items from the collection of its founder, industrialist Martial Lapeyre (1904–84), at Millon in Paris on November 19 and 20. The sale comprises gold boxes, enamel portraits, watches, and miniatures dating from the 17th to the 19th century, none of which bear a direct connection to Napoleon. The foundation has chosen to sell these pieces to concentrate its acquisition efforts exclusively on the First and Second Empires.
This is not the first time the Fondation has reduced its non-Napoleonic holdings. In December 2019, it consigned 271 objects outside the imperial periods to Artcurial, where they realized nearly €920,000; the proceeds were earmarked for new Napoleonic acquisitions. The current selection is explicitly built around Lapeyre’s taste for portrait miniatures, many of which were set into decorative boxes manufactured generations after the original portraits were painted.
The auction is divided into two thematic sales—Millon’s Souvenirs Historiques and La Face des Rois—displayed in room 9 at Hôtel Drouot, with viewing open on November 17 and 18. A significant portion of the lots features the work of Jean I Petitot, the 17th-century enameller sometimes called the “Raphael of enamel painting.” Around ten lots carry portraits attributed to or after Petitot, including a Paris gold box by Adrien-Jean-Maximilien Vachette, dated 1809–19, which holds a portrait of Marie-Louise d’Orléans, queen of Spain, and carries an estimate of €8,000–12,000 (approximately £6,700–10,700). Two further boxes illustrate the practice of remounting: a Vachette case bearing a likeness of Cardinal Richelieu after Petitot and Philippe de Champaigne, and a box by Pierre-André Montauban holding a portrait of Jean-Antoine I de Mesme, attributed to Petitot or Pierre Bordier; each is estimated at €4,000–6,000 (roughly £3,300–5,000). These were previously exhibited in Rome and Portoferraio in 2008, and at the Château de Malbrouck in 2009.
Among the top estimates is a gold snuffbox set with an 18th-century enamel portrait of a young man by Christian Friedrich Zincke, the German-born enameller who worked for the British court and aristocracy. Probably made in England in the early 19th century, the box frames the portrait in silver set with 39 old-cut diamonds, with an estimate of €15,000–20,000 (about £12,500–16,700).
Beyond the Petitot works, the sale includes a Geneva gold and enamel box by Georges Rémond & Cie, probably intended for the Ottoman market and depicting the garden mosque at Schwetzingen, an 18th-century architectural folly without religious function, estimated at €6,000–8,000 (approximately £5,000–6,700). A stag-hunt decorated box made in St Petersburg by Johann Wilhelm Keibel carries an estimate of €8,000–12,000. A group of 19 gold buttons, probably once belonging to Marie-Antoinette and documented in an early inventory now missing its case, is estimated at €2,000–3,000 (about £1,700–2,500); they were exhibited in Nagoya in 2012.
All lots in the sale share the provenance of Martial Lapeyre’s bequest, which led to the creation of the Fondation Napoléon, recognized as a public-interest foundation in 1987. The foundation’s decision to part with these items reflects its ongoing mission to refine its focus toward Napoleonic-era material, ensuring that future acquisitions and exhibitions remain firmly centered on the First and Second Empires.
