Civil and Military Equestrian Orders of Saint Marinus made by Kretly, Paris

Diamond-cut breast star that belonged to the Napoleon Maret, 2nd Duke of Bassano (1803-1898), Grand Chamberlain to Emperor Napoleon III.

Silver, gold, gilt, enamel.

 

Napoléon Joseph Hugues Maret, duc de Bassano (Paris July 3, 1803 ; Paris May 21,1898) was the son of the French diplomat and later foreign minister Hugues-Bernard Maret, duc de Bassano. The title, bestowed in 1809 in the noblesse impériale, commemorates Napoleon I's victory at the Battle of Bassano (Bassano del Grappa in Veneto ) in 1796.​

In 1835, Napoléon Joseph Hugues was recognized by Louis-Philippe I as Duke of Bassano and appointed attaché, then secretary at the French embassy in Brussels. However, after the February Revolution of 1848, he was recalled. He joined the Bonapartist party and, after declining the post of Minister of War in 1849, became Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of France to the court of Baden, and in 1851 to the court of Belgium. From 1853 to 1870, he served as Senator and Grand Chamberlain to Napoleon III.​