Our Artifact Corner looks at a tea set honoring a very famous historical general.
www.kentdelordhouse.org/
Hi Everyone and welcome back to another artifact corner. Today we will be looking at a tea set made sometime in the early 1830’s. This tea set was purchased in Europe when Frances Henrietta Delord and her new husband Henry Webb were on their honeymoon. They departed for Europe in 1832 and returned to America in 1833. So we know the tea set was made sometime prior to 1833. It is described as a tea set that was in honor and memory of Napoleon Bonaparte. Frances Henrietta was half French thanks to her father Henry Delord. She held a special place in her heart for France, and the French people. She even notes in her journal that she stayed in Napoleon’s apartments when she and her husband were in France. So, it’s not surprising that she decided to buy this tea set and bring it home to New York with her. Let’s learn a bit more about Napoleon Bonaparte.
Napoleon was born on 15 August 1769 on the island of Corsica. He had an elder brother, Joseph, and, later, six younger siblings: Lucien, Elisa, Louis, Pauline, Caroline, and Jérôme. At the age of 9, Napoleon moved to the French mainland and enrolled at a religious school in Autun to improve his French (his mother tongue was the Corsican dialect of Italian). Although he eventually became fluent in French, he spoke with a Corsican accent and his French spelling was poor. In September 1784, Napoleon was admitted to the École militaire in Paris where he trained to become an artillery officer. He excelled at mathematics, and read widely in geography, history and literature. He graduated in September 1785 and Napoleon was commissioned as a second lieutenant. By 1793 Napoleon had become a General, and was leading campaigns throughout France and Italy. In 1796 he met his future wife at a ball. In less than two months he and Josephine were married. Two days after their wedding he left to lead an army into Italy. He wrote to his bride, “ Every moment separates me further from you, my beloved, and every moment I have less energy to exist so far from you. You are the constant object of my thoughts.”
By 1799 the French government was a group of powerful men called The Directory. On November 9, 1799 Napoleon and a few disillusioned members of the government, backed by grenadiers with xed bayonets, forced the Council of Five Hundred to dissolve the Directory and appoint Bonaparte, and two others as provisional consuls. On 18 May, the senate proclaimed Napoleon Emperor of the French and approved a new constitution. The following day, Napoleon appointed 18 of his leading generals Marshals of the Empire. Napoleon and Josephine’s marriage by this point had become very toxic. They were both having affairs, and Napoleon had a child with his mistress. The couple were childless and Napoleon desperately wanted an heir. They were divorced on December 15th, 1809. Napoleon was deposed a second time and exiled to the island of St. Helena where he passed away on May 5th, 1821 at the age of 51.
This tea set is in excellent condition. Despite it’s almost two hundred years of age, there is very little wear on the pieces, and they are just stunning. The gold and black motif would fit in to almost anyone’s modern decor today. We are so lucky to have these pieces in our collections. Thanks so much for stopping by!
The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Sunny Morning by MusicLFiles
Free download: filmmusic.io/song/7813-sunny-...
License (CC BY 4.0): filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist website: cemmusicproject.wixsite.com/m...