The arrival of King Louis XVIII in Paris; the King and his family riding into Paris in an open carriage drawn by eight horses, the Porte Saint-Denis with crown suspended in the arch, mounted soldiers, onlookers and figures waving from balconies; the boulevard beyond

After leaving their English exile of Hartwell, Buckinghamshire on 20 April 1814, King Louis XVIII, restored to the French throne after the invasion of Paris by the allies, entered Paris in the morning of 3 May 1814. The carriage, drawn by eight white horses taken from Napoleon's stables, carried Louis XVIII and his niece, the duchess d'Angoulême (see also lot 104) who was seated opposite the duc de Bourbon and the old prince de Condé. The present miniature embellished the journey through the Porte Saint-Denis, which was described by eye witnesses as of an eery mood with cold, sad and silent onlookers who "only broke the silence to mock the grotesque dresses of those revenants". After Napoleon's return from Elba in March 1815, the Bourbons had to leave France for the second time.