Napoleon’s posthumous triumph in Paris: his iconic hat was auctioned for 1.2 million euros

Napoleon Bonaparte died on the island of Saint Helena on May 5, 1821, two centuries ago. Now, the cocked hat that made her silhouette universally recognizable was auctioned by Sotheby’s in Paris and bought by an American citizen for 1.2 million euros. It had been valued between 500 and 700 thousand euros. The price paid is second highest for Emperor membership. Another Napoleon hat was sold for 1.8 million euros in 2014.

The hat at auction It was used by Bonaparte between 1806 and 1807, in the victorious battles of Jena, Friedland and Eylau and during the signing of the Treaties of Tilsit (1807).

Made of black felt with beaver hair and decorated with the tricolor cockade (blue, white and red, the colors of the French flag) and with a double black silk knot held in place by a button, it is one of the 19 bicorns that have been authenticated as belonging to Napoleon, which in life has used more than 100. The recently auctioned is one of the few to have retained the interior quilted silk lining.

The hat was in possession of a Scottish politician, Michael Shaw Stewart, who acquired it in 1814 at the Brühl-Marcolini Palace in Dresden. “I consider it to be one of the most curious and interesting things to own and I will not save on care or expenses to bring it home when I return ”, Shaw Stewart wrote in his diary, according to the specialist site Knowledge of the Arts. The bicorn remained in his family, from generation to generation, until 2015, when it was sold for 450,000 euros at an auction at Christie’s in London.

The fascination of collectors is understandable: the hat is Napoleon’s most distinctive sign, inseparable from his silhouette.

On October 27, another Bonaparte hat will also be auctioned, in this case by the Bonhams house. With one more: in the hat they would have found two hairs that bear the imprint of the Emperor’s DNA

Napoleon Bonaparte is the most famous Frenchman of all time and the most written. Despite cultists’ attempts to nullify culture, in the name of diversity, to stigmatize it as genocidal and slavery, it is difficult to deny its role in disseminating the values ​​of equality. Remember that it was Bonaparte the first to promote commoners on their own merits. Under his command, many commoners became generals, governors and even kings. Unforgivable.

In France, there was anger at the dubious attitude of the government regarding the celebration or not of the bicentenary and to what extent.

“One could recall that Napoleon, obscure second lieutenant, left the massive conscription decreed by the Convention – wrote for example the essayist and educator Jean-Paul Brighelli, when it was necessary to save the country from the invaders who invaded our doors and conspirators who undermine the Revolution from within. It is significant that the Government hesitates to celebrate Napoleon. Not because of what he was, but because of what he can represent today: a man who unified Europe under his leadership ”.

Many French politicians are intimidated by the political correctness lobby and fear offending the progressive sensibilities so fashionable today. Frank Ferrand, writer who hosts a radio show specializing in history, believes that this debate says more about the present than the past: “Napoleon is our exact opposite: what we are no longer and even more what we do not want to be, preferring the delights of servitude to the servitudes of greatness.”

In France, and in the world, there is an obvious double standard if we think that the French Revolution is revered, studied and even sacred -Set aside his crimes- while the man who saved and consolidated most of his achievements is forgotten and vilified. Or exclusively responsible for the negative of this process.

The Napoleonic wars, even if they are called so, were not all caused by Napoleon or by France; In addition, it should be remembered that those who fought it defended the Ancien Régime and the absolute monarchies. The British “story” on this stage of history still ignores the fact that London has sided with reaction, supporting and defending the most rancid European crowns. The political result of Waterloo was the restoration of the decadent Bourbons to the throne of France. The French needed several additional revolutions to finally establish the Republic.

Napoleon did not only wage war. He has done great things at the civil, political and institutional level. “Her heritage is visible,” writes Agnès Poirier, a columnist specializing in historical issues: from the ‘N’ which adorns almost all of the bridges and monuments in Paris to the 2,626 high schools in the country. We owe him the Civil Code, the baccalaureate, but also the administrative, judicial and educational structure in France and in many other countries. Napoleon succeeded in putting an end to the French Revolution by remaining largely loyal to it, consolidating the ideals of 1789. He also engaged in wars to protect revolutionary France against a coalition of European monarchies led by Great Britain ” .

His characteristic silhouette, with his black upturned bicorn hat, his gray coat and his right hand hidden in the waistcoat, make him the most recognizable character in the world.

KEEP READING: