I promised you a link to yesterday`s card, and it was that Queen Astrid spent a lot of time whilst she was expecting her first child by reading a book about Empress Josephine, a character she found most inspiring.
In fact "Josephine" was not her real name, for when she was born on the 23rd of June, 1804, she was christened Marie Josephe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie. We do not know exactly where she was born, but we think it was in Saint Lucia.
Her aunt was the mistress, then later the second wife of the Governor of Martinique, Francoise de Beauharnais, and step mother to his son Alexandre. When the son came of age, and needed a bride, it was suggested that he married Marie Josephe. He thought she was a bit young, for she was only fifteen, so he was betrothed to someone else. Unfortunately before the wedding the someone else died, so he was offered her sister, who was thought unacceptable, being only eleven. Therefore he seems to have settled on Marie Josephe, and they were wed on the 13th of December 1779
This was not a happy marriage, though it produced a son and a daughter. Then the French Revolution came along and Alexandre was arrested, then put to death by guillotine on the 23rd of July 1794, along with his cousin. Marie Joseph was also arrested but before she could be executed the Reign of Terror was over and she was freed.
In 1795 she met Napoleon Bonaparte, in whom she saw a spark of promise, though he was six years younger than her. She became his mistress almost straight away, and it was he who called her Josephine. They were married in 1796, though both lied on their marriage certificate, adding eighteen months to his age and dropping four years from hers. His family were appalled, not just at the age gap, but at the fact she already had two children, and they also thought that she was stringing him along. They were right in that, as the same year she was openly seen in public with a handsome Hussar, who was also aide de camp to Napoleon`s brother in law. In order to stop this affair, Napoleon asked her to join him in Italy, and she did, but she brought her paramour along as well. In retaliation, he had an affair, with an officer`s wife. .
What changed this was an assassination attempt, in Paris, on Christmas Eve, 1800. Someone, to this day unknown, left a bomb in a cart and it exploded as her carriage was passing, Napoleon`s carriage having already gone by. That seems to have reawakened his ardour for her, and in 1804 the two of them were crowned Emperor and Empress of the French
Sadly, it was becoming evident that there was another problem, for after having been married for quite some time she had still not given him an heir. In fact it seems that our card, showing the pair in Belgium, relates to a trip they made to see his doctor in the hope that some solution could be found. Unfortunately that too failed, and he decided his only hope was to divorce her and marry someone who could give him children. It must be said at this point that he did have two children already, however they were not legally his heirs to the throne as he was not married to their mother(s), but it is not certain why he did not just marry one of them. All we know is that in 1810 he divorced his Josephine, and married Marie Louise, the sister of Alexander I, tsar of Russia, and she gave him four children.
Napoleon set Josephine up with a luxurious apartment at the Chateau de Malmaison, and gave her an annual allowance, but sadly she died, of pneumonia, on the 29th of May 1814, aged just fifty-one, whilst Napoleon was exiled on Elba. Reportedly he was most distressed at this, and as he lay dying, in 1821, he mentioned her name.
Now this set is often listed as being by "La Societe Arts Historia S.A" of Brussels, but though their name comes first, they only edited the text. If you look further down the back, it turns out that the series was issued by several companies, all of whom are listed in the thick bordered box – however, because all of the names are listed, there is no way to tell by which one of them any particular card was included.
The first name is Meurisse, and so we have gone for that as the issuer, rather than the others, who were
- Chicoree PACHA Cichorei
- Cafes F. ROMBOUTS Koffie
- DELACRE
- Produits ANCO Producten
- A MEEUS-DIERCKX
- Georges LEBBE & ZOON
- I.P.A. (Produites Cirio Produkten)
- Cigarillos ALTO
- Pain-EXPO-Brood
And did you pick up that one of these was a tobacco issue, Cigarillos Alto? Sadly they appear in neither the original nor the updated World Tobacco Issues Index, but I do know they were Dutch, and that they are usually listed under the name of "Verkoopkantoor N.V. Alto Sigarenfabrieken" - though "Verkoopkantoor" means sales office, and "N.V." is the Sutch way of denoting a limited company. I also know they were based at 25a, Kloveniersburgwaal, Amsterdam. They are mostly known these days for their collectable cigar bands, but that could well be because their name is so far down the list on the back that nobody notices it.
The other unsolved mystery is the true name of the set. The top line gives "Collection - Nos Gloires", which is French for "Collection - Our Glories". Then the next section tells us it is "Verzameling - Lands Glorie", and that is Dutch, and not so far off the French title, for it means "Collection - National Glory". However beneath the box with all the issuers there is a second title, "L`Etat Belge - de Belgische Staat". That means "The Belgian Nation", and it is the only title which has the album number (IV) the series number (71), and the card number (353). Therefore it seems that the real title of this set is that second one.
I have no idea of the date of issue though.