SOUVENIR OF GENERAL DE TOURNEMINE
Key-operated pocket watch
SOUVENIR DU GÉNÉRAL DE TOURNEMINE
Key-operated pocket watch
Cylinder escapement movement. Case with diamond-engraved back.
Blued hands. White enamel dial with Roman numerals (cracks). Second hand at 6 o'clock.
When open, it is engraved on the inside of the mechanism cover: "No. 4027. Henry LEPAUTE, Hr de l'Empereur et de la Ville. A Paris."
And around the rim: "Gift from Napoleon I to General TOURNEMINE. His son-in-law, General LAHURE, gave it to Chles HUTLY"; mechanism in need of repair; mechanics reworked, engraving and attribution made under the Second Empire by Henri Lepaute
D.: 5.5 cm - Gross weight: 124 g
Provenance:
Former Napoleonic collection of the Prince's Palace of Monaco (2nd sale, lot 168).
A silver pocket watch, Napoleon's gift to General de Tournemine
Biography:
Bernard VACHER, Baron de TOURNEMINE (1788-1861)
He was born in Aurillac on October 18, 1788. He joined the 4th Artillery Regiment as a simple gunner in 1804, and distinguished himself during the capture of English ships in the North Seas. In 1809, he transferred to the land artillery; he then fought in the Italian campaigns, was wounded crossing the Piave River, and then fought in Germany, at Lutzen and Bautzen, where he served as adjutant major. Since then, there has been no rank he has not acquired on the battlefield. Shot in the Battle of Montereau in 1814, he was then assigned to command a battery of the Young Guard. After the Restoration, he entered the Royal Guard and became a colonel in 1826. In 1830, he escorted King Charles X to Cherbourg in this capacity. In 1831, after an interval of inactivity, General Tournemine organized the 11th Artillery Regiment. In 1836, he was sent to Algeria, where he served under Generals Clausel and Valée and earned a triple mention in the army's order of the day. Field Marshal in 1837, he headed the Douai Artillery School from then on. On December 7, 1848, Tournemine was appointed divisional general; but, in 1852, he was placed in the reserve (2nd section) of the general staff. General Tournemine ended his honorable career in 1861. His daughter Émilie married Oscar Lahure (1801-1862), son of General Louis Joseph Lahure.
