Lot n° 181
Estimation :
3000 - 4000
EUR
Relics of the decorations of Count - Lot 181
Relics of the decorations of Count
Giuseppe Prina, Minister of Finance of the Kingdom of Italy, dignitary of the Royal Order of the Iron Crown on February 20, 1806
In a blackened wooden frame, sewn onto a black leather background, are a set of five ribbon and cord fragments and the center of an embroidered plaque of a dignitary of the Order of the Iron Crown.
Iron Crown, as recommended by the Emperor. The background is embossed with a legend in gold lettering in Italian meaning "Minister Prina's decorations / torn from his habit".
Prina / torn from his habit, already in the hands of the invaders of his palace, by
Georges Mussi of Milan, captain in the 2nd Italian regiment of light infantry".
A label and a popular engraving are glued to the back of the frame.
The label bears a handwritten account in Italian of the historical context and Prina's fate, translated as follows: "April 20, 1814. Napoleon falls.
The people in revolt moved towards the house in Piazza San Fedele where Finance Minister Prina lived. They invaded, looted and, after a long search, found Prina in an attic. He stripped him naked, ripped off the decorations and dragged him through the streets of Milan until nightfall. He died after a barbaric ordeal". The popular engraving shows the defenestration of the undressed Minister Prina by the Milanese mob, with the following printed caption: "The end of Minister Prina, enriched on the ruin of others, which began pleasantly and ended sadly in Milan on April 20, 1814". A list of relics is inscribed in the corner of the engraving: Gran Cordone Corana di ferro, Legion d'Onore, Corona di Ferro, Onore e Fedelta,
Centro della grande stella di gran dignitario della corona di ferro, Legione napoli.
The center of the Iron Crown dignitary plaque is a special design featuring polychrome silk embroidery of the real Iron Crown of Monza surmounted by the imperial eagle topped by a five-pointed star, instead of the traditional profile of the Emperor surrounded by three eagles separated by three antique radiate crowns. The Italian legend embroidered around it on a gilded metal blade is from the model officialized in October 1809: DIO ME L'HA DATA GUAI A CHI LA TOCCHERA.
Dimensions of background: 28.2 x 22.8 cm
Center of plaque: 62 mm
Kingdom of Italy, 1st Empire period, circa 1809-1814.
Relics of the decorations of Count Giuseppe Prina, Minister of Finance of the
Kingdom of Italy, dignitary of the Royal Order of the Iron Crown on February 20, 1806
Dimensions of the background: 11 x 9 in
D. of the center of the plaque: 2 1/2 in
Kingdom of Italy, Empire period, circa 1809-1814.
1 J - 1230(A)
Provenance: Maître Marcel Pognon
- Maître Marcel Pognon assisted by Pierre Foury, April 12, 1930, Hôtel Drouot, room 6, lot 187.
- Binoche et Giquello, Importants souvenirs du maréchal Ney, Paris, June 20, 2012, lot 57.
The Order of the Iron Crown was instituted on June 5, 1805 by Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, after being crowned King of Italy in Milan on May 26, 1805. It was divided into three contingent classes. This model of the Dignitary plaque does not correspond to any regulations.
It seems to stem from a project that Prince Eugène de Beauharnais, Viceroy of Italy, drew up and modified in 1809, in accordance with the Emperor's very precise recommendations. (See J. L. Koechlin, "Les Ordres de la Couronne de Fer et de la Couronne d'Italie (1805-1905)", page 32, which transcribes a letter from Napoleon to Eugène from Valladolid on the evening of January 16, 1809.) The center of this plate, torn from Minister Prina's suit on April 20, 1814 - five years after the joint design by the Emperor and Prince Eugène - as well as the very few surviving examples of this type, attest that this particular model did not remain a mere project, but was actually made and worn.
Giuseppe Prina (Novara 1766-Milan 1814) was appointed Minister of Finance of the Italian Republic by Bonaparte in 1802, a position he held throughout Napoleon's reign in Italy. Highly competent, extremely hard-working and of great probity, Prina enjoyed the Emperor's full confidence. But as a Piedmontese, authoritarian, brittle and honest, he was hated by the Lombards. To achieve his reforms and meet military expenditure, he was obliged to constantly raise new taxes, unacceptable to the Italians, who hated him to the point of massacring him in Milan on April 20, 1814.
Bibliography:
- KOECHLIN, J. L., Les Ordres de la Couronne de Fer et de la Couronne d'Italie (1805-1905), Plon, Paris, 1907.
- PAWLY, Ronald, L'hisoire de l'ordre de la Couronne de fer napoléonien et sa transformation en 1814-1815.
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