Two early 19th century painted silhouettes: Marie Louise and...

Hammer

£500

Two early 19th century painted silhouettes: Marie Louise and Napoleon Bonaparte opposing, and a clipped autograph note below. The note is believed to be in the hand of the latter, and roughly transcribes as:

'I cannot part with them, without I am able to get two more - therefore remember I only lend them to you. N.'

Pasted to the reverse is a boldly written, signed and dated ink annotation: 

 'These silhouettes of Napoleon & one of his ladies (name unknown) were sent by Napoleon, when a prisoner, to Joseph Cole, the Postmaster in St. Helena (formerly the Navy & East India Coy).
His granddaughter Miss Mary L. Gooch gave them to me. The writing is Napoleon's.
Arthur C. Dalton
12th September 1935.'

Joseph Cole (d.1833) was appointed Postmaster at St Helena in 1815 and in partnership with William Balcombe supplied the Emperor's household at Lynwood. Balcombe was particularly intimate with the Emperor and acted as an intermediary in the transmission of his friend's clandestine correspondence to Europe. Cole's second daughter, Sarah (1831-1867), married the Eton surgeon James Wyard Gooch (1834-1920) in 1862. Their first child was, Agnes Mary Louisa Gooch (1864-1945 20 Oct) who presumably inherited the silhouettes and note when her mother died in 1867.

(Both silhouettes measure approx 10cm x 6.5cm and the ebonised glazed frame 19cm x 22cm.)