A LIMOGES PORCELAIN CUP AND SAUCER DEPICTING NAPOLEON BY E. FURLAUD

A LIMOGES PORCELAIN CUP AND SAUCER DEPICTING NAPOLEON BY E. FURLAUD

A highly decorated early 20th-century French Limoges porcelain cup and saucer. One half of the cup features a portrait of Napoleon by Etienne Furlaud, and the other half and the saucer are decorated with golden bees. The cup and saucer are hand-painted and gilded. The underside of the saucer has a Union Ceramique de Limoges mark, both the cup and the saucer have Casa Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires marks.

Napoleon is seen here in his green and white uniform, of the type worn by colonels of the 'chasseurs à cheval' (light cavalry) of the Imperial Guard.

The golden bees 'volant en arrière' are symbols that Napoleon had adopted very early into his reign, possibly as a way to link himself to the founder of the Merovingian dynasty of early France, whose tomb had been found with hundreds of bejeweled golden bees within.

Etienne Furlaud was a prolific porcelain painter of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Cup H: 2 in., (5 cm.);

Saucer D: 4 1/2 in., (11.4 cm.)

Condition: Perfect.