Great jeweler Napoleon III. France, ca. 1870

Great jeweler Napoleon III. France, ca. 1870.
In chiseled and silvered bronze. Wooden bottom and original velvet interior.
With its original key.
Measurements: 23 x 45 x 28 cm.

Large Napoleon III jewelry box decorated with putti scenes in the style of Claude Michel, known as Clodion (1738-1814), symbolizing allegories of the arts, sciences and letters in light relief on three sides, friezes of hearts, ribbons, fluted sides. Handle in the shape of a flower.

Back in Paris after a period of training in Rome and after having participated in numerous competitions, Clodion established his own workshop, where he worked with his brothers representing mythological scenes, groups of dancers, nymphs and bathers, in a language somewhere between rococo and neoclassicism. His works were in great demand, from the Parisian salons to Catherine II of Russia. Clodion's works are preserved in the Louvre (Paris), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg), the Victoria & Albert Museum (London), the Art Institute of Chicago, the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles), the Frick Collection (New York) and the Kimbell Museum (Forth Worth, Texas), among many others.