Object details
Object number
T17s1.a
Creator(s)
Title
Eagle Finial: Insignia of the First Regiment of Grenadiers of Foot of Napoleon's Imperial Guard
Date
1813-1814
Medium
Gilded bronze
Dimensions
25.4 cm (10 in.)
Signatures, inscriptions, and markings
Number of regiment (base): 1
Provenance
Anatoli Nikolaievich Demidov (1813–1870), Prince of San Donato, Russian diplomat and industrialist, Florence.
Sale of the San Donato Collection, Chales Pillet, Paris, 12-22 April 1880, lot 2190.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the art dealer Sypher and Company, New York on 9 November 1880 for $300 with the standard of the Imperial Guard of Napoleon. (museum nos. T17s1.b-d)
Stolen in 1990.
Commentary
Isabella Stewart Gardner kept meticulous records of many of her acquisitions. In keeping with this legacy, object information is continually being reviewed, updated, and enriched in order to give greater access to the collection.
Bibliography
Charles Pillet. Palais de San Donato, deuxième partie, Catalogue des objets d'ameublement du rez-de-chaussée,... (Paris, 12-22 April 1880), p. 27, lot 2190. (as an exact copy of the flag of the first regiment of the Imperial Guard of Napoleon I)
Art Exhibition: Mrs. John L. Gardner, 152 Beacon St., Boston. Exh. cat. (Boston, 1899), p. 1, no. 5. (as the flag of the first regiment of the Imperial Guard of Napoleon I)
O. Hollander. Nos drapeaux et étendards de 1812 à 1815 (Paris, 1902), pp. 22, 81-83, 103, 104, 201, 202.
Catalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1903), p. 1. (as a flag of the first regiment of the Imperial Guard of Napoleon I)
Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 133. (as a flag of the first regiment of the Imperial Guard of Napoleon I)
“Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 9, no. 42 (19 Jun. 1966), p. 2. (as a copy of the flag of the first regiment of the Imperial Guard of Napoleon I)
Général J. Regnault. Les aigles impériales et le drapeau tricolore 1804-15 (Paris, 1967), pp. 207, 208, figs. 36, 37.
Adolph S. Cavallo. Textiles: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1986), pp. 160-61, no. 117. (as the original or a copy of the flag of the first regiment of the Imperial Guard of Napoleon I)
Musée de l'Armée Invalides, Paris, accessed 2015. www.musee-armee.fr/ (Eagle finial as Antoine Denis Chaudet, cast by Pierre-Philippe Thomire)
Kathleen King,"Relics of an Emperor: Napoleon Bonaparte," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 9 August 2022, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/relics-emperor-napoleon-bonaparte-gardner-museum
Gallery
Short Gallery
Rights and reproductions
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