porcelain, cobalt blue neck and circular foot with wide gilt bands to rims, neck with gilt eagle and gilt oak leaf stems, foot with gilt oak leaf stems, acanthus leaves, palmettes and gilt laurel wreath, dated 1809, baluster encompassed by polychrome-painted landscape, to the obverse Napoleon giving the order on his white horse, surrounded by generals and officers, verso instruments of war, officers and armies in a deep landscape, to the obverse inscribed lower left H. Desprez, Sèvres, handles with laurel festoons, rows of beads and acanthus leaves, base ring with laurel wreath, octagonal base with 4 rosettes and closed aperture in yellow metal, height 84 cm, cover restored, France, 2nd half of the 19th cent. (Ru)

at the Battle of Wagram on 5th and 6th July 1809, Napoleon’s French troops conquered the army of Archduke Karl of Austria near Vienna. This proved to be the end of the War of the Fifth Coalition.

Provenance: acquired by Dragoncourt, Djurgarden, Stockholm, then ownership of Oscar Bernadotte. According to tradition, the vase was initially presented to Jean Baptiste Bernadotte (later King Karl XIV Johan) and his wife Désirée (later Queen) by Napoleon, when they met on friendly terms in Paris. Désirée had been engaged to Napoleon in her youth, who pined for her his whole life long.