Louis-Martin Berthault

[1] In 1801, the Duchess of Brissac sold the Château de Pontchartrain to the industrialist and speculator Claude-Xavier Carvillon des Tillières, a leader of the "Black Band" syndicate of businessmen enriched by the Directory who specialized in the purchase and liquidation of the great aristocratic estates.

[1] Berthault served Napoleon as a landscape architect, succeeding Jean-Marie Morel at Queen Hortense's residence at the Château de Saint-Leu in Taverny.

A Sèvres porcelain basket to hold flowers or fruit, now held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was designed by Berthault in 1814.

Berthault was hired to make the stairway wider, and to build a ballroom over the garden capable of holding 3,000 guests.

[5] He organized a ball on 3 March 1821 attended by over 1,500 people at which each lady received a bouquet of flowers and also a diamond ring of brooch.