Covers:

Count Nikolai Demidoff

Anatole Demidoff, Prince of San Donato

Charles Frederick Hancock

Count Alfred de 🅠la Chapelle, Seigneur of Morton and🌜 Beaulieu, Périgord

An English Gentleman of Title, The Ande🎉rson Galleries, New York, 15 December, 1928, l🃏ot 41

Christie's, New York, April 18, 1991, lot 81.

Warming stands:

Prince Camillo Borghese

The Bor✃ghese Palace sale, Giacomini and Capobianchi, Rome, 28 March - 9 April 1892, part of lot 847

Don Antonio Licata

Prince Baucina

Ercole Canessa

Mrs. Edith Rockefeller McCormick, American A꧋rt Association/Anderson Galleries Inc., New York, 5 January 19💮34, probably lots 729 and 730

Christie's, New York, April 18, 1991, lot 81.

The Demidoff service, of which the covers are a part, was created by Maison Odiot in 1817 at the order of Count Nikolai Demidoff (1773–1828), a Russian nobleman. Having inherited his father’s fortune at age 15, Demidoff spent lavishly in his youth, fueled by the eight metallurgical factories and many mines in his possession worked by some 12,000 serfs. Though originally꧙ a supporter of Napoleon while living in Paris as a member of the diplomatic service, increasing Franco-Russian tensions forced his withdrawal to Russia, where Demidoff would finance and command an infantry regiment during the French invasion of Russia. After the war, Demidoff moved back to Paris, living there from 1815–1819 and likely ordering the service from Odiot in that time. The service was passed on to Demidoff’s second son Anatole Demidoff after his death, eventually being sold to C. F. Hancock in 1863. Hancock added the arms presently visible on the covers, identified by French heraldry expert Philippe Palasi as those of de la Chapelle, as borne by Alfred de la Chapelle (1830–1914), Count of Morton and Beaulieu in Périgord. De𒐪 la Chapelle was a nobleman whose wide-ranging career saw him at times as journalist, politician, and adventurer. Though born in France, he journeyed to the Americas in his youth to join the California gold rush and found fortune in Mexico before returning to France and then emigrating to Australia, dying in England in 1914. After his death, the Demidoff service was acquired by an Englishman and eventually dispersed at auction in the sale "Magnificent creations in gold plate made by Claude Odiot for Count Nikolai Demidoff" at the American Art Association Anderson Galleries (AAA-AG), New York, December 15, 1928. A significant portion of the Demidoff service was sold at Christie’s, London, in "The Exceptional Sale 2011", lot 30, for £3.1 million. A pair of covered dishes and a pair of wine coolers from the Demidoff service are held in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts and a cruet frame from the service is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The accompanying warming stands come from a separate service, the Borghese service, a set including 500 silver-gil🃏t objects primarily by Martin-Guillaume Biennais for Prince Camillo Borghese (1809–1819). Borghese married Napoleon’s second sister, Pauline Bonaparte, in 1803, and the service is widely considered to have been a gift from Napoleon to celebrate their marriage. Th🍬eir marriage was not a happy one, and the two spent most of their time apart; the Borghese service was likely split between Rome and Paris in their lifetime. The service remained with the Borghese family until 1892, when the set was sold as one lot at an auction of the entire contents of the Borghese Palace in Rome. The service eventually came into the collection of Edith Rockefeller McCormick and was exhibited in its entirety at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1924–1932; upon her death, the service was split up, sold across 150 lots in the sale “Collection of Mrs. Rockefeller McCormick” at the American Art Association Anderson Galleries (AAA-AG), New York, 1934. Pieces of the service can be found in many public collections today, including the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.