19cm (7.4in) x 9.5cm (3.7in) x 10cm (4in)
Ormolu mounted Sienna marble desk weight in the form of the Second Empire knight’s badge of the Legion d’Honneur beneath a wreath of victor’s laurels.
Following Napoleon III’s coup of 1851, the Legion d’Honneur was expanded to reward service across wider French society, acknowledging both the rapid growth of industry and the development of charity work. Under Napoleon I and successive monarchist regimes the majority of members of the order were military and exclusively male.