Italy, Sardinia. A Wax Seal of King Charles Albert of Sardinia c.1840
Item #EU13246
Price:
$310
Seal in greenish-black wax, likely having been accompanied an award document, illustrating the Royal coat-of-arms of Sardinia in the centre, surrounded by an inscription in Latin attributed to King Charles Albert of Sardinia, the seal encased in a two-piece shallow circular container, the sides of the container in magnetic metal, the end plates in brass and adorned with an elaborate starburst design, three holes in the brass plate behind the wax seal, with four cords in green embroidery interlaced with silvered threading projecting through the holes, two of which are tied together in a knot, 85 mm in diameter, one small dent on the side of one of the brass end plates, the wax seal remaining intact, extremely fine.
Footnote: Charles Albert (Italian: Carlo Alberto I: October 2, 1798 - July 28, 1849), also called "The Hesitant" for his variable political lines, was the King of Sardinia from 1831 to 1849. His name is bound up with the first Italian constitution, the Albertine Statute, and the First Italian War of Independence (1848 -1849). He abdicated after his forces were defeated by the Imperial Austrian army at the Battle of Novara in 1849 and died in exile soon thereafter. He was born in Turin in October 1798, to Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Carignano and Maria Cristina of Saxony. His father was the great-great-great-grandson of Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano, youngest legitimate son of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, and founder of the Carignano line of the House of Savoy. He was the third cousin once removed of Victor Amadeus III, and the next male-line heir after the three sons of Victor Amadeus. When Charles Albert was born in 1798, none of his cousins had a son, making him the likely eventual successor on the throne of Sardinia. He was educated in the intellectually liberal atmosphere of Geneva, then in Paris during the First French Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon named him a lieutenant of dragoons in 1814. After the final fall of Napoleon the following year, Charles Albert returned to Turin. Two mentors were entrusted with countering the dangerous ideas about "national liberation" ("liberté, égalité, fraternité/liberty, equality, fraternity") Charles had learned in France. However, he continued to display some sympathies with the liberals. In 1817, Charles Albert married his second cousin once removed, Maria Theresa of Austria, the youngest daughter of Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Princess Luisa of Naples and Sicily. The couple had three children: Victor Emmanuel II (1820-1878), who married Adelaide of Austria; Prince Ferdinand of Savoy (1822-1855), Duke of Genoa, who married Princess Elisabeth of Saxony; and Princess Maria Cristina of Savoy (1826- 1827), who died in infancy. In 1821, as regent for the Kingdom in the absence of the new king, Charles Felix (then in Modena), he conceded a "constitution" that was soon disavowed by the king. Charles Felix sent him to Spain, to serve with the French army that King Louis XVIII of France sent to suppress the liberal revolution there and restore Ferdinand VII. He distinguished himself at the Battle of Trocadero in 1823, which gained him the favour of the leading conservative European power, the Austrian Empire, and also of King Charles X of France (who succeeded in 1824). Charles Albert succeeded his cousin Charles Felix to the throne of Sardinia in 1831. Although an Italian patriot who allegedly was opposed to the Austrian hegemony and domination in Northern Italy, he put down Mazzini's 1833 conspiracy. He introduced a series of reforms following the many Revolutions of 1830 that convulsed Europe. He abolished domestic customs and trade barriers within the Kingdom, supported the arts and sciences, and promulgated the Statuto Albertino, a constitution. The Statuto was inspired by the earlier reforms of Louis Phillippe, the new moderate "King of the French", of the new kingdom of Belgium, and even later the reforms and parliamentary laws instituted in Great Britain. During the Revolutions of 1848, he agreed to a constitutional regime which remained in place for the century that the Kingdom of Italy lasted. The same year he declared war on Austria. The small army of Piedmont was supported by volunteers from the whole of Italy. However, after his initial victories lost him the support of the Pope and the other Italian rulers, he was defeated at Custoza on July 24, 1848, and was forced to sign an armistice at Vigevano on August 9th. Under the increasing influence of the Republicans in Piedmont, he resumed the war the next year. But the Piedmontese were again defeated, at Novara. Rather than redrawing the Statute, he abdicated in favour of his son, Victor Emmanuel, and went into exile in Portugal. He died at Porto the same year. His remains were transferred to the Royal Basilica of Superga, outside Turin.