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  The Tea Service of the Emperor Napoleon I, by Martin-Guillaume Biennais  
                 
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© National Museums of Scotland 		 

Formerly in Hamilton Palace, South Lanarkshire, now in the National Museums of Scotland

In 1830 Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton, purchased the great silver-gilt tea service that had been commissioned for the Emperor Napoleon in connection with his marriage to the Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria in March-April 1810. Alexander may have been alerted to the existence of the service by Napoleon's architect and designer Charles Percier, who designed some of the principal pieces and supplied designs for interiors for Hamilton Palace in the 1820s, or by Charles Cahier, who was official goldsmith to King Charles X and had also undertaken work for the duke. Cahier had offered to buy the service from the French crown for almost 10,740 francs, but on 10 May 1830 Charles X agreed to sell it for 17,000 francs to 'foreigners' -apparently acting as agents for the 10th Duke.

 
                 
 

This illustration shows the two halves of the service reunited in 1985, for the first time since 1919, shortly before they were installed in the exhibition French Connections: Scotland and the Arts of France in the Royal Museum, Edinburgh.

The tea and coffee equipment in the first chest was included in one of the Hamilton Palace sales in 1919 and has been in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, since 1952. Chest two -containing the punch bowl, sugar bowl, double salts, plates, toast racks and 'flatware' or cutlery -was retained by the Dukes of Hamilton until 1976, when it was purchased by the National Museums of Scotland, with aid from the National Art Collections Fund.

 
                 
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  [ related links ]              
  Click for further informationEmperor Napoleon in his Study        
                 
  Click for further informationDouble salt from the tea service   Click for further informationSugar bowl from the tea service   Click for further informationCutlery from the tea service    
                 
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