Important brooch celebrating the Franco-Italian... - Lot 143 - Osenat

Lot 143
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Estimation :
20000 - 25000 EUR
Important brooch celebrating the Franco-Italian... - Lot 143 - Osenat
Important brooch celebrating the Franco-Italian alliance at the time of Italian independence Brooch featuring an imperial eagle, in 585-thousandths gold and 925-thousandths silver, the eye set with a red glass cabochon, the body and wings paved with rose-cut diamonds. It rests on two flags in bundles in the colours of Italy, decorated with emeralds, rose-cut diamonds and rubies, holding a royal crown and an old-fashioned cushion-shaped diamond (transformation of the mechanism, one rose-cut diamond is missing on one flag, some rubies replaced and glued). Height: 45 mm. Gross weight: 25.6 g. 19th century. History: The presence of the Imperial Eagle above the flags of the new Italy shows that France holds a primordial place in the process of unification of Italy, where it intervenes several times militarily but in a contradictory way. The issue is close to her heart for various reasons: on the one hand, France wants to promote the principle of sovereignty of peoples, especially since she sees it as a means of weakening the Austrian empire, and on the other hand, by helping unification, she can hope to annex Savoy and Nice, which were then dependent on the House of Savoy which reigns over the kingdom of Sardinia and which also aspires to drive the Austrians out of northern Italy. Another not insignificant motivation is that of the protection of the Papacy: Louis-Napoleon, in order to respond to the Catholic majority of the country, cannot ignore the problem posed by the Papal States. It is this latter reason that explains the sending of French troops in 1849 to re-establish the Pope, whom the 1848 uprisings drove out of Rome. Cavour understood, after the failure of the first Italian War of Independence, that French support was necessary to achieve unification. So on 21 July 1858 a secret meeting took place in Plombières between Napoleon III and the Piedmontese minister. The Emperor made Cavour understand that France was ready to help Piedmont against Austria on co
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