Miniature Bonapartist Portrait of Victor Napoleon, Head of the Imperial Household

Portrait carved on ivory of the head of the imperial family, Prince Victor Napoleon (1862-1926)*, circa 1880-1890.
Signed lower right H. Verne... to be identified.
A good size; the miniature measures approximately 10cm x 8cm.
From an estate sale, never auctioned or otherwise.
Shipping available via Chronopost:
France €30
Europe €55
Rest of the world €80.

*Prince Victor was the grandson of King Jérôme, the youngest brother of Napoleon I, and Catherine of Württemberg.
It was to serve the Emperor's political interests that Jérôme married Catherine of Württemberg as his second wife. Together they had three children: Prince Jérôme Bonaparte, who died of a serious illness in 1847, Princess Mathilde, and Prince Napoléon-Joseph, who, after his brother's death, resumed the name Jérôme. He was mockingly nicknamed Plon-Plon. Under the Second Empire, in 1859, this time to further Napoleon III's Italian policy, Prince Jérôme married Princess Marie-Clotilde of Savoy, daughter of Victor Emmanuel of Savoy and Adelaide of Habsburg. From this union were born three children: Victor in 1862, Louis in 1864, and Laetitia in 1866. Prince Victor was therefore the grandson of two kings: Jérôme, King of Westphalia, and Victor Emmanuel II, King of Italy from 1861.

His prestigious lineage led Prince Victor to play a prominent political role. Through the rules of succession, Prince Victor became the head of the Imperial House, as there were no other male heirs descended from Napoleon I or his brothers. King Joseph had only daughters, Lucien had been disinherited by Napoleon I, and Louis's branch died out in 1879 with the death of the Prince Imperial. Consequently, Jérôme Bonaparte's branch was the sole dynastic line.

Upon the death of the Prince Imperial, the head of the Imperial House should have been Prince Jérôme. However, due to the latter's reactionary political views, the Prince Imperial had stipulated the following in the codicil to his will: "The duties of our House towards our country do not end with my life; after my death, the task of continuing the work of Napoleon I and Napoleon III falls to the eldest son of Prince Napoleon." The Prince Imperial therefore preferred Victor as his successor. This wish of the Prince Imperial had significant repercussions. First, it triggered an irreparable rift between Prince Jérôme and his son Victor. Second, it meant that at barely eighteen years old and against his will, Prince Victor became the representative of the imperial cause. He would remain so until his death in 1926. Yet, despite having been the head of the Imperial House for some forty years, Prince Victor has been completely forgotten by history.

Source: Prince Victor Napoleon (1862-1926)
by Laetitia de Witt on www.musée-napoleon.fr

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