A Chased and Gilded Eagle Pocket Watch Holder standing on a patinated bronze, decorated with gilded bronze details on a green onyx base.
This particular eagle is a smaller edition of an eagle used under Napoleon the First’s Flagpoles.
Napoleon chose for his armies the Eagle, the bird of Jupiter, emblem of imperial Rome, that had been associated with military victories since ancient times.
The day after the coronation on December 2, 1804, Napoleon had the symbol placed at the top of the flagpole of all the flags of the Napoleonic armies.
On December 31, 1851, Napoleon III decided to use the same symbolism as his uncle and use eagles at the top of his flagpoles. To do this, a new ceremony of distribution of eagles was organized on May 10, 1852, after the coup d’état of December 2, 1851.
The stakes were high because it gave the future Napoleon III the opportunity to gauge the loyalty of his armies. On this occasion, he brought in representatives from all the garrisons of France and Algeria.
The eagles, made from a drawing by Jean-Auguste Barre (1811-1896), then cast in gilded bronze, once again had their wings spread and their beaks more open.
Our lovely piece is dated 1857 and is a smaller scale of the eagle used on the flagpoles of Napoleon’s III armies.
The green marble base is beautiful and perfectly preserved.