CASSETTE DE LA REINE MARIE-ANTOINETTE À LA CO... Lot n° 28

Rectangular rosewood and copper trim personal effects box with two side handles, hinged with a key clasp. The interior has four small side compartments and a large central compartment. French work from the end of the 18th century. H. 16 x W. 44 x D. 35 cm. The cassette is accompanied by two handwritten papers relating its history: 1) "In 1793, when Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France, was transferred to the Conciergerie, all her silverware was taken away and replaced by a boxwood cutlery, and her toilet case by another one, made of rosewood with a copper trim. When she was taken to the scaffold, she gave her cutlery, and her toilet case to the woman who had rendered her some services with attachment; the latter yielded to the entreaties made to her by M. Gravis to sell her these two objects, for the sum of one hundred and twenty francs (in assignats), on the 2nd of February 1795. » 2) "It is the daughter of Mr. Gravis, living in Froyennes, near Tournai, who wrote this note when my mother, Mad(am)e A(ugus)te Marescaille de Courcelles, bought it from her, after the death of this gentleman, around the year 1855. I myself had this cassette, after the death of my mother. Countess de Favières, born Marescaille de Courcelles. Paris. - May 6, 1864. » Provenance - Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France (1755-1793), at the Conciergerie (according to the attached manuscript papers). - Agapite Gravis (?-c. 1855), surgeon, from 1795. - Justine Joséphine Charlotte Petitpas (Lille, 1789-1862), wife of Alexis Auguste Hippolyte Marescaille de Courcelles (Douai, 1787-Tournai, 1860), from 1855. - Marie-Ghislaine-Louise-Agathe Marescaille de Courcelles, Countess of Favières (Lille, 1817-1880), from 1864. - Then by descent. History Agapite Gravis, chief surgeon of the mines of Anzin living in Raismes, was imprisoned in Valenciennes in 1794 with his wife Justine Vinchamp for counter-revolutionary acts during the Siege of Valenciennes (1793), before being transferred to Paris where he probably acquired the cassette in 1795 (Arch Nat. W 64 file 3672). A Madame Gravis (probably the wife of Mr Gravis, Justine Vinchamp, born around 1769, or more likely his daughter), is quoted by Champfleury in "L'hôtel des commissaires-priseurs", 1867, published by E. Dentu, as being a collector of Marie-Antoinette's objects: "One must not pass over in silence the lover of historical objects, the one whose news cutter in the newspapers, gravely announces the marvel in the following terms: Madame Gravis, living in Calais, possesses the wooden spoon which served Marie Antoinette during her imprisonment in the Temple. This brings to Madame Gravis a sentimental Englishwoman who, having already shed a few tears in Marie Antoinette's dungeon at the Conciergerie, records in her notebook that she was furthermore admitted to contemplate the precious wooden spoon of the unfortunate victim!" This spoon was exhibited at the 1955 retrospective on Marie Antoinette, archduchess, dauphine and queen, at the Château de Versailles, at No. 599, p. 196 of the catalogue, where it is stated, "Bought for 25 francs in assignats on 25 frimaire an III by Madame Gravis, incarcerated in the Du Plessis prison, from Rosalie Lamorlière servant of the concierges Richard and the Queen at the Conciergerie. Still in the family. Collection of Monsieur Bataillon. Library: Arch. Nat. W 64 dossier 3672." This information reinforces the probability of the royal provenance of the present cassette, which would make it a precious relic of Queen Marie-Antoinette's last days at the Conciergerie. Let us recall that the Queen arrived there on the night of August 2, 1793, separated from her daughter, Madame Royale, and her sister-in-law, Madame Elisabeth. Suffering from bleeding, Marie-Antoinette would have developed uterine cancer, cervical cancer, a fibroid or would have been affected by an early menopause. She remained there until October 16, the day of her execution at 12:15 p.m. on the Place de la Révolution.