Empress Eugénie of France’s Display Cabinet
This beautiful painted rosewood display cabinet originally belonged to Empress Eugénie of France (1826-1920), wife of Napoléon 111 (1808-1873), who fled England in 1870 following France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War.
Merton later bought the piece at auction and recalled in his autobiography Home and Abroad, that during a visit to the Royal Bath Hotel in 1881, Empress Eugénie was stunned to see her cabinet again which had once formed part of the furnishings of her boudoir at the Château de Saint-Cloud, located west of Paris. She later sent him a diamond ring, but Merton ignored this hint, keeping both the diamond and cabinet.
