Hand of Justice of the Coronation, with the Ring of Saint-Denis

The hand of justice, an ivory right hand raised in blessing on a sceptre, was one of the insignia handed to the kings of France at their coronation. The medieval one kept at Saint-Denis, perhaps of the thirteenth century, was carved from a narwhal tusk, then called unicorn ivory, and is known from a watercolour made for Gaignières and an engraving in Montfaucon. Removed with the treasury in seventeen ninety three, it was not preserved. When Napoleon decided that the regalia of Saint-Denis should figure at his coronation in eighteen hundred and four, Vivant Denon had this replacement made by the goldsmith Martin-Guillaume Biennais: a new ivory hand on a copper mount, onto which a medieval gold ring known as the ring of Saint-Denis, with filigree and an engraved stone, was fitted.