IMPERIAL: A fine set of eleven damask linen napkins commissioned for the table of Emperor Napoleon III of France, third quarter 19th century, probably English

Emperor Napoleon III (1808-1873) when living at Camden Place, Chislehurst.

These fine napkins celebrate the glory of a reign that was to end on the 4th of September 1870.

After the fall of the Second Empire, Napoleon and Empress Eugénie fled to England, where they set up home at Camden Palace in Chislehurst. The Emperor died in 1873, leaving Eugénie and their sixteen-year-old son.

The large size of the present napkins may be explained by Margaret Visser (The Rituals of Dinner, 1992), she writes 'Fashionable men of the time wore stiffly starched ruffled collars, a style protected while dining with a napkin tied around the neck. Hence the expression "to make ends meet." When shirts with lace fronts came into vogue, napkins were tucked into the neck or buttonhole or were attached with a pin. In 1774, a French treatise declared, "the napkin covered the front of the body down to the knees, starting from below the collar and not tucked into said collar'.