Papal Gift

Papal Gift. Jean-Georges Rémond et Compagnie, Geneva, circa 1810. Very fine and rare gold, enamel and pearl-set oval snuff box with painted on ivory portrait miniature of Pope Pius VII, in original fitted leather box tooled with "EX DONO PII PPVII PAULO VANDERVRECKEN 1814" Notes Pius VII (1740-1823), Pope (1800-1823). Born Barnaba Chiaramonti in Cesena; successor of Pius VI, who had created him cardinal in 1785. He conducted himself ably during the French Revolution, showing sympathy for the social aims of the Revolution. A conclave in 1799-1800 ended with his election. His secretary, Ercole Consalvi, was a guiding force throughout his pontificate. An early event was the Concordat of 1801 with Napoleon, to reestablish the church in France and set up a new hierarchy ; much of it was vitiated by Napoleon's Organic Articles, which Pius would not accept. In 1804, Napoleon forced Pius to consecrate him as emperor, only to demean him at the last minute by taking the crown from the pope's hands and crowning himself. Napoleon found Pius intractable when not directly under his influence, and the French eventually took Rome (1808) and the Papal States (1809). Pius excommunicated the assailants of the Holy See, and Napoleon had him taken prisoner and removed to Fontainebleau. The pope was browbeaten into signing a new Concordat, which he disavowed after the battle of Leipzig. In 1814, after Napoleon's downfall, Pius returned to Rome in triumph. One of his first acts was to re