A GOLD-MOUNTED TORTOISESHELL BOÎTE-À-MINIATURE, FRENCH, CIRCA 1800

Jean-François Sebelle, called Lebelle, was an artist active in the first third of the 19th century who specialised in the technique of fixé sous verre (peinture éludorique), first used in France in the mid 18th century. The technique, sometimes credited to Arnaud Vincent de Montpetit, involved painting on a fine fabric that was then fixed directly onto a protective glass. The Soane Museum, London, has several signed examples of Lebelle’s work, including a view of a church interior dated 1826 (inv. no. P174).

The Château de Saint-Cloud, much expanded by Philippe, Duke of Orléans in the 17th century and by Queen Marie-Antoinette in the 1780s became the favoured residence of Emperor Napoleon I in the early 19th century. In 1852 Napoleon III invested himself as Emperor of the French in the Galerie d’Apollon. Much of the palace was destroyed during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, and the remains finally demolished in 1891.