62 Important grouping of the medals of honour and office of Count Joseph Jérôme Comte Siméon (1749 - 1842).

The estate consists of 20 silver medals engraved with the name of Comte J.J. Siméon on the occasion of his various offices and political functions.

Predominantly from the period of the French Revolution, the Restoration and the Civil Kingship: 

Conseil des Cinq - Cents - Representant du Peuple; Conseil des Cinq - Cents - Representant du Peuple l'an V. Conseil des Cinq - Cents - Representant du Peuple l'an VI; Republique Francaise Tribunat An VIII; Republique Francaise Conseille d'Etat; Chambre des Representants Session de l'an 1815; Chambre des Députés Session de l'an 1815; Chambre des Députés 1818; Chambre des Députés 1819; Chambre des Députés 1820; Chambre des Députés (with portrait of Louis XVIII. o.J.); Conseil d'Etat (with portrait of Louis XVIII); Chambre des Pairs (with portrait of Louis Philippe o.J.) Chambre des Députés(with portrait of Louis XVIII. o.J.); Chambre des Pairs (with portrait of Louis XVIII. o.J.); Institut Royale de France.

All medals on velvet tablet in magnificent original brown leather case with gold embossed inscription: "LE COMTE J.J. SIMÉON", surmounted by the count's crown.

Attached handwritten inscription and description of the medals of honour contained in the case in French.

Together with 4 additional medals, partly from the possession of the son, Viscount J.B. Siméon: Chambre des Pairs (with portrait of Louis Philippe o.J.; Le Comte Siméon Senateur ( from the time of the 2nd Empire); Medal of the Promoters of the Memory of the French Victories 1792-1815 (1820) - "S.EXC. Mg. le COMTE SIMEON MINISTRE de l'INÈRIEURE et SÉCRETAIRE D ' ÈTAT". Assemblée Nationale 1849 (in original case with gold embossed inscription).

Also included a Knight's Cross of the Italian Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus (gold and enamel) as well as a gilt medallion on the occasion of the coronation of King Charles X with a handwritten dedication to J.J. Comte Siméon on the reverse.

Comes with an extensive, important lot of documents, certificates and records on the history and genealogy of Count Siméon and his family. Including royal cabinet orders and appointment decrees for various administrative functions, letters from King Louis Philippe, Etat des Services 1799 - 1837, etc., etc.

Documents concerning the coat of arms for the Armorial du 1er Empire; Annales Historiques - Famille Siméon, 1884 - 1885; documents Armorial Spécial de France, 1875-1877; documents la France Héraldique, 1870 - 1875; engraved seals and vignettes; large folder with gold embossed inscription "Famille Siméon - ARMORIAL". Contains extensive documents relating to genealogy and family history.

Joseph Jérôme, comte Siméon (* 30 September 1749 in Aix-en-Provence; † 19 January 1842 in Paris) was a French jurist and politician. At the outbreak of the French Revolution he was in administrative service and had to flee France twice in the turmoil of the Revolution. During King Jérôme's reign in the Kingdom of Westphalia, he was first his Second State Councillor, later Minister of Justice and Minister of the Interior (in personal union until 31 December 1808, then only Minister of Justice). In 1810 he was interim Minister of War for a short time. After the collapse of the Kingdom of Westphalia, he was in the service of the restored Bourbon dynasty and also experienced the July Revolution of 1830, by then raised to the rank of count and awarded the Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honour.


Joseph Jérôme Siméon was born on 30 September 1749 in Aix-en-Provence and, like his father Joseph-Sextius Siméon (1717-1788), was initially a professor of law at the university there from 1778. In the same year he married Françoise Garcin († 1815); their son Joseph-Balthazard Siméon (1781-1846) was a diplomat during the Restoration era. In 1783 he entered the administrative service as assessor for Provence, but lost his positions during the Revolution, to which he was rather hostile. However, he welcomed the social achievements. In 1793, he took part in the provincial uprisings that followed the events of the days from 31 May to 2 June 1793, during which the Girondists, under pressure from the people of Paris, lost their position in the National Convention. He was declared an outlaw and had to flee to Italy to escape the reign of terror. He only returned to France after the fall of Maximilien de Robespierre on 9 Thermidor II (27 July 1794). From 1795 he was a conservative deputy in the Council of the Five Hundred, the second chamber of the French parliament, and from 19 August to 21 September 1797 also its president. A failed conspiracy in the Pluviôse an V (January/February 1797) envisaged him as Minister of Justice. However, after violent protests against the coup d'état of 18 Fructidor V (4 September 1797), he had to flee France again to avoid prison. In 1799 he was finally arrested after all and interned on the Île d'Oléron until Napoleon's seizure of power in the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire VIII (9 November 1799).
During the Napoleonic Era (1799-1813)

He was appointed a member of the Tribunate by Napoleon on 18 April 1800 (year VIII according to the Republican calendar) as a deputy for the Bouches du Rhône department. Before that, he replaced the chief prosecutor at the Court of Cassation. As a member of the Corps législatif, he helped develop the meaning and aims of the Code civil. In 1804, he was appointed a member of the Conseil d'État.

After the creation of the Kingdom of Westphalia through the Peace of Tilsit, Napoleon initially appointed a three-member government consisting of Jacques Claude Beugnot, Jean-Baptiste-Moïse Jollivet and Joseph Jérôme Siméon to administer the satellite state in August 1807. Beugnot and Jollivet were jointly responsible for setting up the administration and the Ministry of Finance, while Siméon was entrusted with reorganising the judiciary and preparing the introduction of the Code civil. After the enactment of the constitution on 15 November 1807 by decree of Napoleon, Westphalia was initially ruled by an all-French government, but within a few months most of the officials were replaced by Germans, only Siméon remained in office. Until the arrival of King Jérôme on 6 December 1807, the governing council ruled autonomously. Siméon was the only minister of the Kingdom of Westphalia to remain in office throughout its existence.

The Code civil was introduced on 1 January 1808 as the civil code (in parallel with the Code de procédure as civil procedural law). As minister, Siméon administered a completely rewritten judicial system
The most important achievements of the judiciary in Westphalia were the abolition of serfdom and the reduction of the privileges of the nobility, as well as the equality of all subjects before the law, which also included the unconditional equality of the Jews.
Siméon was one of the kingdom's most influential politicians and was elevated to the rank of Grand Commander of the Order of the Crown of Westphalia on 14 November 1810 for his services, an honour bestowed on only four other people. In addition, he was Grand Master of the Grand National Lodge of Freemasons in Kassel. As early as 1810, he was considered one of the few ministers capable of effectively directing the destiny of the state. After King Jérôme's departure for Russia in 1812 and the transfer of power to Queen Catherine, Siméon was able to strengthen his position once again.  He took over the chairmanship of the Council of Ministers, which advised Catherine, and in practice also held the position of State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, as the incumbent accompanied the King on the Russian campaign.

On 12 October 1813 Gustav Anton von Wolffradt took over the Ministry of Justice in Westphalia from Siméon for the last few weeks, as the latter had fled to France to escape the advancing Cossacks. Despite a fierce anti-Bourbon speech in the wake of Napoleon's elevation to emperor, he entered the service of the Restoration after the end of the Empire. During the First Restoration he became Prefect of the Department of the North, and during the Napoleonic rule of the Hundred Days in 1815 he was elected to the House of Representatives. After Napoleon's final defeat, he was given a seat in the Chambre introuvable, the second chamber of parliament, during the Second Restoration (1815-1830). As early as 1815 he also became a member of the Conseil d'Etat again.

In 1818 he was appointed Comte and in January 1820 he became Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice. From 21 February to 14 December 1821, he was Minister of the Interior in the Armand du Plessis cabinet, and also chaired the Commission of Education. In the same year he was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honour and in October he was appointed Pair of France and, after the end of the du Plessis government, Ministre d'Etat, which was then a purely honorary title. On 30 August 1824 he married Amélie Cornuau (1776-1840), his first wife having died in 1815.

In 1830, he joined the monarchy under Louis-Philippe I in the wake of the July Revolution. After the restoration of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences in 1832, he was one of its first members. He held his last public position as First President of the French Court of Audit between May 1837 and March 1839. Siméon died in Paris on 19 January 1842 at the age of 92.

The esteem in which Joseph Jérôme Siméon was held in France during his lifetime is particularly evident from the fact that he held office under eight different administrations. German historiography of the 19th and 20th centuries also has a decidedly positive view of him.

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