Napoleon, hat sold at a record price

A bicornuate hat that belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte, also worn during the battles of Jena, Friedland and Eylaun, was sold at a record price of 1.2 million euros (1.4 million dollars) at Sotheby’s during an organized online auction. from the Paris headquarters to commemorate the bicentenary of the death of the French emperor. The bicorn was proposed with an estimate of 500,000-700,000 euros (587,000-822,000 dollars). Legend has it that this hat traveled with Napoleon during his triumphal 1807 campaign and that it was worn while on July 7 of the same year he signed the Tilsit treaties that divided Europe into different areas of French and Russian influence with Tsar Alexander I of Russia. The next chapter in its history began when the emperor left Dresden and his valet gave the hat to Jean-Baptiste Kuhnel, porter of the Bruhl-Marcolini palace. It was then bought in 1814 by the politician Sir Michael Shaw Stewart, who wore the hat to Ardgowan, Scotland, and has since been passed down from generation to generation by the family. The specimen remained the property of the Shaw Stewart family until 2015, when it was sold at Christie’s in London for £ 386,500 ($ 530,000). According to Sotheby’s, Napoleon owned around 120 bicornuate hats, making this type of hat inextricably linked to the image of the emperor. Each of them was made by the same hatter and was constructed of black felt with the inner band in silk, as Bonaparte was allergic to leather. The emperor hated wearing new hats and therefore had his footman wear them first. About 20-30 of these hats remain. Among the other objects offered for sale among the Napoleonic relics at Sotheby’s were a pair of gilt bronze candelabra, sold for 176,000 euros; a set of flintlock pistols for officers, which reached € 126,000; three separate locks of the emperor’s hair, the first two of which went to € 18,900 and € 13,860 respectively. The third, enclosed in an enamel pin, was not sold.