REMEMBRANCE OF GENERAL DE TOURNEMINE Pocket watch with key Cylinder escapement movement. Case back engraved with lozenges. Blued hands. White enamelled dial with Roman numerals (cracks). Second hand at six o'clock. Opened, it is engraved on the inside of the mechanism cover "N°4027. Henry LEPAUTE Hr de l'Empereur et de la Ville. A Paris." And on the rim: "Gift from Napoleon I to Gal TOURNEMINE. His son-in-law Gal LAHURE gave it to Chles HUTLY"; mechanism to be reviewed; mechanism modified, engraving and attribution made during the Second Empire by Henri Lepaute. D. 5.5 cm - Gross weight: 124 g Provenance : Former Napoleonic collection of the Palais Princier de Monaco (2nd sale, lot 168). A silver pocket watch, Napoleon's gift to General de Tournemine Biography : Bernard VACHER, Baron de TOURNEMINE (1788-1861) He was born in Aurillac on 18 October 1788. He joined the 4th artillery regiment as a simple gunner in 1804 and made a name for himself capturing English ships in the North Seas. In 1809, he moved to the land artillery; then he fought in the Italian campaigns, was wounded at the Piave crossing, then fought in Germany, at Lutzen and Bautzen, where he was adjutant-major, and from then on there was not a rank he did not acquire on the battlefield. After being shot in the battle of Montereau in 1814, he was put in charge of a battery of the young guard. After the Restoration, he joined the Royal Guard and became colonel in 1826. In 1830, in this capacity, he escorted King Charles X to Cherbourg. In 1831, after a period of inactivity, General Tournemine organised the 11th artillery regiment. In 1836, he was sent to Algeria, where he served under Generals Clausel and Valée and earned himself a triple mention in the army order of the day. Marshal of Camp in 1837, he headed the artillery school at Douai from then on. On 7 December 1848, Tournemine was appointed division general, but in 1852 he was placed in the reserve (2nd section) of the general staff. General Tournemine ended his honourable career in 1861. His daughter Émilie married Oscar Lahure (1801-1862), son of General Louis Joseph Lahure.