Verge with portrait of Napoleon & Tsar Alexander Circa 1807

Kenmerk: BB0365
Diameter: 58 mm

Estimate: € 2.000 - 4.000
Price sold: € 2.000

Silver, gilt and enamel verge watch
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A Swiss silver, gilt and enamel verge watch depicting Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I commemorating the 1807 Treaty of Tilsit, circa 1807. Gilt full plate, fusee and chain, faceted baluster pillars, pierced bridge with coqueret, adjustable potence. Painted white enamel dial with a lady playing the lute in a pastoral landscape enclosing an Arabic chapter disc and gilt hands. Consular case, gilt band chased with vine, vase shaped pendant struck with French restricted warranty mark of 1798-1809 for silver, back lid set with an enamel portrait of Napoleon I embracing Tsar Alexander I of Russia within bezel chased with vine. Case maker’s lozenge mark G.M., probably Geneva.
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Diameter: 58 mm
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Signed: No name
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The watch incorporates an enamel medallion dating from the post-Tilsit period showing Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I embracing.

“…In a series of brilliant victories from Austerlitz to Jena and Friedland, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, had defeated the armies of Austria, Prussia and Russia. In June 1807, after the Russians had been pulverized at Friedland, the French cavalry occupied Tilsit (later Sovetsk) on the River Nieman, the border between Prussian and Russian territory in Poland. The Russian army was in no state to continue fighting and Tsar Alexander I suggested peace talks between himself, Napoleon and King Frederick William of Prussia. Seeing an opportunity to stabilize his dominant position in western and central Europe, and isolate Britain, Napoleon agreed.”

“…To meet on neutral ground the conference was held on a raft hastily built by the French in the middle of the river Nieman, with two grand white tents on it…”

“The discussions continued for several days, punctuated by entertainments in the evenings, with both Napoleon and Alexander quartered in Tilsit, dining together every day and often talking alone together far into the night. They took to each other, hugged each other when they met, walked along holding hands and exchanged cravats and handkerchiefs…”

“The treaty between France and Russia was signed on July 7th and the one between France and Prussia on July 9th…:”

“Many influential Russians and Prussians regarded the treaties as shameful capitulations, and they did not last… Napoleon invaded Russia in June 1812.”

‘The Treaty of Tilsit’ by Richard Cavendish, History Today Volume 57, Issue 7, July 2007