A large oval basin with slightly tapering straight sides and a flat base, the everted lip cast with a band of leaf and husk.

Marks: Marks for Paris, 1798-1809 and maker’s mark of Marie-Joseph Gabriel Genu.

This basin formed part of a travelling service supplied to Napoleon. As a seasoned campaigner Napoleon travelled with every possible necessity for eating, dressing, grooming, writing, surveying, map-making, dental and physical health. These items, created in an elegant, pared-down style, usually in silver gilt, were packed with ingenuity into numbered mahogany boxes or necessaires, many of the works fitting inside others.