A Sèvres plate from the dessert service for Pauline Borghèse (née Bonaparte), circa 1805

The well decorated with a portrait medallion on a faux marble ground with a puce-beaded gilt border, the light-blue ground rim preserved with three green-ground panels containing swans flanking a fountain alternating with diamond-shaped panels depicting classical masks flanked by foliage and palmettes, between lilac beaded bands, 23.5cm diam., 'M.Imp.le/ de Sevres/^' stencilled in iron-red, incised II and M and painter's mark for Hirel de Choisy (active 1770-1811)

Provenance:
Ordered 6 November 1805 by Empress Joséphine and given to Princess Pauline Borghèse, sister of Napoleon I

See Camille Leprince, Napoléon Ier & la Manufacture de Sèvres, (2016), no. 72 for a full list of the service. Another example was sold at Christie's, New York, 9 April 2019, lot 127.

Pauline Borghèse or Bonaparte (1780-1825) was the sixth child of Letizia Ramolino and Carlo Buonaparte, and one of Napoleon's three sisters. In 1797 she married General Charles Leclerc who died only a few years later in 1802. To solidify ties with French-occupied Italy, Napoleon therefore arranged for her to marry Camillo Borghese, 6th Prince of Sulmona.

After Napoleon's fall, Pauline was the only one of his siblings to visit him on Elba during his exile. She moved to Rome after the Battle of Waterloo, where Pope Pius VII offered her and other family members his protection. In 1825 Pauline died from tuberculosis at the age of 44 in the Palazzo Borghese.