Severely simple as is the monogram of Napoleon III., it is ingenious, and not without a certain air of grandeur, whilst the badge of the empress, though still preserving an imperial character, is more graceful and ornamental, as was appropriate to its owner, who was considered one of the most beautiful women of her time.
These two stamps were principally used on the bindings of books which were either presented or dedicated to the emperor and empress, and the volumes on which they are found certainly belonged to their private library.
A characteristic example of the formal heraldic book-plate in vogue during the Second Empire is that of Amédée David, Marquis de Pastoret, a politician and littérateur, who was born in 1791, and died on May 19, 1857. His war cry, “France! France!” recalls the fact, little to his credit, that he was one of the first to applaud the Coup d’Etat of Napoleon III. and to profit by it. (See p. 144.)
He was the son of M. Pastoret, a senator and member of the Institute of France, created a Count of the Empire by the first Napoleon, with a grant of arms thus described in the Armorial Général de l’Empire Français: “D’or à la bande de gueules chargée d’un berger paissant un mouton d’argent.”
This Count of the First Empire became a Peer of France under the Restoration, and figures as a brilliant instance of a successful turncoat in the Dictionnaire des Girouettes.
On page 143 is the modern armorial of the Comte Lanjuinais, probably that of the son of the first Comte Lanjuinais, who started in politics as a member of the National Convention, swore fidelity to the Republic and death to the King. This did not prevent him from accepting the title of Count of the Empire from Napoleon, who also named him a knight commander in the Légion d’Honneur. On the return of Louis XVIII. he was named a Peer of France, but he again espoused the cause of Napoleon on his escape from Elba, whilst on the downfall of the Empire for the second time he obtained another appointment by the grace of the king. His name and fame are immortalized in the “Dictionary of Turncoats.”
