Princess Pauline Borghese's Nécessaire de Voyage

Acquisition by private treaty sale of the Necessaire de voyage, or travelling service, made by Marie-Joseph-Gabriel Genu (hallmarked 1798-1809) and assemble and supplied by Martin-Guillaume Biennais for Princess Pauline Borghese, c 1803. It contains more than a hundred items of silver-gilt, gold, glass, mother of pearl, tortoise shell, steel and other materials stored in a mahogany chest with inlaid brass decoration. Probably supplied at the time of Princess Pauline's marriage to Prince Camillo Borghese in 1803. Later, in Rome, she formed a relationship with Alexander, later 10th Duke of Hamilton, to whom she bequeathed the service in 1825. It remaimed in the collection of the Dukes of Hamilton and had been on loan to the National Museums of Scotland for some years when it was offered for sale.