As is well known, the Empress Josephine had a passion for cameos, not only those carved in hardstone but also in shell as here. Proof that she found shell cameos difficult to resist is provided by her letter of 1797 from Milan to her brother-in-law Joseph Bonaparte with the French troops in Rome and southern Italy. Asking him to buy shell cameos '...five or six necklaces, bracelets, earrings, all in shell', she then adds 'I can see you smile and make fun of my rather strange taste, but don't forget I'm only a woman' (cf. Bernard Chevallier, Impératrice Josephine Correspondence 1782-1814 [1996] p.55). Because shell is easy to carve the cameos in this suite are linked iconographically and illustrate aspects of love: Cupid in various guises, interspersed with the loves of the Gods and symbols of fidelity such as a wife's devotion to her husband personified by Agrippina mourning the ashes of Germanicus. Josephine's extravagance was matched by her generosity to her family, friends and those who looked after her and there seems no reason to doubt the traditional provenance of this set as she was very close to her Tascher de la Pagerie cousins