A French silver-gilt and cut-glass necessaire de voyage, Pierre Leplain, Paris, 1809-1819

comprising: chocolate pot and cover, burner, wick mounts and cover, stand and cover, teapot and cover, milk jug, burner, tea strainer, eye bath, scent funnel, inkwell, sander and cover, 2 table forks, 2 table spoons, 2 teaspoons, 2 dessert knives and 2 cheese knives with mother-of-pearl handles, 13 cut-glass perfume flasks and a tea caddy with silver-gilt covers and mounts, 2 porcelain cup and saucers, and 29 desk, sewing and toilet implements in gold, mother-of-pearl and steel, a mounted mirror with silver easel support and a card case, in a cream velvet-lined, brass mounted fitted wood case, the cover initialled N entwined with interlaced L's, the knives, possibly Jean Joseph Bourdier, spoons and forks, possibly Jean Veysset, 1809-19

The cypher is apparently that of Louis-Napoleon (1808-1873) who became Emperor of the French in 1852. It appears in identical form but including the imperial crown on the extensive Sèvres gold and white service supplied to the imperial palaces from around 1855, but known as the Service de Napoleon III à Compiègne. See: English and Continental Ceramics, Sothebys New York, 11 October, 1995 lot 330. The lack of a crown in this instance indicates a date for the cypher of before 1852 when Louis-Napoleon became emperor as Napoleon III.