19th C. Royal Casket Box/Safe with Coat of Arms, Gold, Damascene, Etched Steel

Product Description

An Incredible 19th Century Royal Casket Box/Safe with Coat of Arms, Made of Gold, Damascene, and Etched Steel. Charles Le Hon, a Belgian politician, lawyer and industrialist, served as Ambassador to France and deputy to the Belgian Chamber of Representatives. He was created Count in 1836 and a Minister of State in 1856. Fanny Mosselman, a Belgian noblewoman, married Le Hon in 1827 and they had three children Eugène (1828-1860), Louis Xavier Léopold (1832-1879) and Louise (1838-1931). They occupied her father’s hotel particuliere in the Chaussée d’Antin, Paris from 1831 and the Hôtel Le Hon, rond-point de Champs-Elysée from 1843. Fanny was very socially prominent, her glittering Paris salon attended by famous politicians and members of the Royal Family. Her lovers included the duc d’Orléans and most famously the duc de Morny, illegitimate son of Queen Hortense and therefore half-brother of Emperor Napoleon III. Honoré de Balzac described her as “Iris in light blue, the golden haired Ambassadress”.
This splendid coffre-fort or strong box conceived in the neo renaissance style of the late 1830s is decorated with the arms of Le Hon and Mosselman below a Count’s coronet as well as decorated with acanthus arabesque. As Le Hon was created a Count in 1836 its manufacture must post date this. It is also likely to have been manufactured in Paris where the Le Hon lived.
Interestingly in 1851 their son Eugène married his cousin on his mother’s side, Charlotte Mosselman (1837-1912). Their son René was born in 1858. It is therefore also possible that this box was commissioned by Eugene’s parents as a wedding gift in 1851. As his wife was also a Mosselman, the arms would have been equally appropriate for them as for their parents.

Dimensions:
Height: 6.75 in.
Width: 17.5 in.
Depth: 12.25 in.

Provenance:
Formerly Comte Charles Aimé Joseph Le Hon (1792-1868) and Comtesse Françoise Zoé Mathilde Mosselman (1808-1880), known as Fanny Mosselman

Literature:
Henri Jougla de Morenas et Raoul de Warren, Grand armorial de France, Paris, 1934-1952, 7 vol., t. 5