Article: Napoleonic Empire Style: 925 Silver Jewelry and Symbols of Power
Napoleonic Empire Style: 925 Silver Jewelry and Symbols of Power
Napoleon and Jewelry: A Policy of Image
Napoleon Bonaparte understood the power of symbols better than anyone. From his accession to the Consulate in 1799, then to the Empire in 1804, he set out to create a coherent visual style that would legitimize his power and inscribe his reign in the continuity of great civilizations — Rome, Greece, Egypt. Jewelry was at the heart of this strategy: worn by the Empress, the ladies of the court, and noble houses, it spread imperial symbols throughout French and European society.
Solid silver — 925 sterling silver — was the metal of the imperial court for everyday jewelry, complementing gold reserved for grand occasions. Parisian goldsmiths — foremost among them Nitot, Napoleon's official jeweler — worked silver with a mastery inherited from the French tradition described in our article on French goldsmithing of the Middle Ages.