{"id":13683,"date":"2024-04-29T10:12:57","date_gmt":"2024-04-29T14:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiqueref.com\/?page_id=13683"},"modified":"2025-07-09T19:18:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T23:18:28","slug":"headquarters-service","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/antiqueref.com\/index.php\/sevres\/headquarters-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Sevres – Headquarters Service"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 1807, Napoleon ordered from the S\u00e8vres manufactory a service for his own personal use, the \u201cService particulier de l’Empereur\u201d. This famous service, better known as the \u201cHeadquarters\u201d service, is remarkable not only for its quality and beauty but also for the role which Napoleon played in making it. The Emperor gave precise instructions as to the subjects to be painted on the plates, as revealed in a letter from Daru to the director of the S\u00e8vres manufactory, Alexandre Brongniart: \u201c\u2026his intention is that none of the plates should bear images of battles or names of men. Quite the opposite. The subjects should only be very indirect and allusive, evoking pleasant memories<\/em>\u201c. For Napoleon, the pleasant memories were mostly the battlefields of Italy, Egypt, Austria, Prussia and Poland. Napoleon provided an initial list of 28 subjects, which was completed by Brongniart and Denon with the addition of views of palaces, towns and landscapes, construction work, museums and monuments in Paris, as well as the major imperial institutions, such as here, the Prytan\u00e9e de Saint-Cyr. On 27 March, 1810, the service was finally delivered to the Tuileries, just in time to provide the table decoration for the high imperial table for the marriage of Napoleon and Marie-Louise seven days later. The service comprises three main elements: an ‘entr\u00e9e’ (maincourse) and dessert section (178 items including 72 dessert plates), a table centrepiece in biscuit (25 pieces), a coffee service (25 items). The dessert plates are all identically composed, namely: a \u201cgreen chrome\u201d surround decorated with radiating daggers in dark gold, with a central painted scene. 
 
This service went with Napoleon to Saint Helena where it continued to bring admiration to the Emperor and happiness to his companions in exile, who received pieces of the service as presents. The inventory drawn up on the Emperor’s death noted the presence of \u201c54 porcelain S\u00e8vres dessert plates\u201d. The will stipulated: \u201c\u2026I charge Comte de Montholon with the task of keeping these objects and of giving them to my son when he is sixteen years old \u2026 \u201c. Because the Austrian Court refused the bequest, the service remained in the Montholon family and was later dispersed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Sevres<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Sevres<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As leading experts on antique European porcelain, we provide FREE online appraisals<\/a><\/strong> of service ware produced by Sevres factory during 19th century. If you happen to own a Sevres plate from this or any other service and would like to find out its current market value, CONTACT US<\/mark><\/strong><\/a>. We\u2019ll be glad to assist.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1807, Napoleon ordered from the S\u00e8vres manufactory a service for his own personal use, the \u201cService particulier de l’Empereur\u201d. This famous service, better known as the \u201cHeadquarters\u201d service, is remarkable not only for its quality and beauty but also for the role which Napoleon played in making it. The Emperor gave precise instructions as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13832,"parent":13374,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-13683","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/antiqueref.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/antiqueref.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/antiqueref.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antiqueref.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antiqueref.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13683"}],"version-history":[{"count":127,"href":"https:\/\/antiqueref.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18656,"href":"https:\/\/antiqueref.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13683\/revisions\/18656"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antiqueref.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antiqueref.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/antiqueref.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}