LONDON, CIRCA 1860

Details

A VICTORIAN JEWELLED GOLD-MOUNTED HARDSTONE AND IVORY HAND-SEAL
LONDON, CIRCA 1860
formed as a hand clutching a baton, with gold-mounted bloodstone sleeve, one finger wearing a garnet ring, the bloodstone matrix engraved with the cypher of Charles Louis Fouché d'Otrante, 6th Duc d'Otrante (1877-1950) beneath a duke's coronet
2 in. (52 mm.) high

Provenance

Charles Louis Fouché d'Otrante, 6th Duc d'Otrante (1877-1950).
Thence by family descent to the present owner.

Special notice

Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory and tortoiseshell. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.

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Lot Essay

Duc d'Otrante is a hereditary title in the Nobility of the First French Empire which was bestowed in 1808 by Napoleon I upon the statesman and Minister of Police Joseph Fouché (1759-1820), who had already been made a Count of the French Empire. The dukedom was named after the town of Otranto on the east coast of the Salento peninsula in Italy and created - under the French name "Otrante" - as a duché grand-fief in the satellite Kingdom of Naples. The ducal house of Fouché d'Otrante is extant in the Kingdom of Sweden where the dukes have lived since the 19th century.
Charles Louis Fouché d'Otrante, 6th Duc d'Otrante was born in 1877 at Elghammar Castle in Södermanland County, Sweden, and died there in 1955.

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