PAIR OF PLATES FROM THE SERVICE "CAMPAGNE NAPOLÉON" Paris, 1809-1812. Maker's mark: Martin-Guillaume Biennais. Silver. Engraved with the coat-of-arms of Napoléon I. The back with engraved numbers: 471 and 483. D 21 cm. Weight: 487 g. The "Service de Campagne" was carried in the travel carriage during Napoléon's military campaigns. It was made between 1804 and 1815 by the Court Supplier Martin-Guillaume Biennais, who provided all of them with engraved numbers in September 1812. The inventory from that year mentions 594 "assiettes à couteaux de voyage" and 100 "assiettes à soupe de voyage". The travel wagon was abandoned not far from Genappe after the Battle of Waterloo on18 June 1815, and fell into the hands of a Prussian regiment. The commander of the Prussian troops at that time, Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht Blücher von Wahlstatt, obtained the travel carriage with the remaining contents, including parts of the service, as a present (cf. Tulard, Jean: Collectif. La Berline de Napoléon: Le mystère du butin de Waterloo, Paris 2012, p. 270). A plate from the same service is now part of the Château de Fontainebleau, Musée Napoléon Ier, Inv. No. 70 (since 1979). Identical or comparable plates from the "Service de Campagne" were auctioned successfully on several occasions by various European auction houses. * The full tax is charged on this item marked * in the auction catalogue, i.e. VAT is charged on the sum of the bid price plus the surcharge for those items. The VAT will be refunded to Purchasers providing a validly stamped export declaration.