Napoleon, before becoming Emperor of France, had invaded Egypt in 1798. Although ultimately unsuccessful, Napoleon's invasion was culturally important. He brought a team of scholars and artists with him and their studies sparked a period of European interest in Egyptian culture, known as Egyptomania. Napoleon established the First French Empire in 1804 and, to enhance the prestige of the new regime, the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres was commissioned to produce a porcelain table service in the Egyptian style, painted by Jacques François Joseph Swebach-Desfontaines. Completed by 1806 the service was never used by Napoleon, and in 1808 he presented it as a gift to Alexander I of Russia after the Treaties of Tilsit between the two nations.