PARIS // One of Napoleon’s famous two-pointed bicorne hats is due to go under the hammer on Sunday at an auction near Paris.
The black beaver felt hat – believed to have been worn by Napoleon during the Battle of Marengo in Italy in 1800 – is valued at between 300,000 and 400,000 euros (between Dh1.38 million to Dh1.84m). However, Napoleon memorabilia watchers say it could go for up to two million euros.
During his reign as French emperor – from 1804-1814 and again in 1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte is said to have worn around 120 of the hats.
“Napoleon and his hat is one and the same,” French auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat said. “There is no other object in France’s history that is more symbolic of the person it represents.”
Made by French hat makers Poupard and Cie, Napoleon wore them sideways rather than with points at the front and back so he could be easily spotted on the battlefield.
Of around 20 hats that still exist, only two or three are in private hands with the rest scattered in museums across the world.
Nearly 1,000 objects were on sale at the two-day auction by Osenat which ended Sunday, but the hat is the most emblematic item.
“Napoleon always had 12 hats in use, each would last three years and were replaced at the rate of four per year,” reads the auction’s catalogue. “As he didn’t like new hats, he had them broken in by Constant [his valet].”
The auction also includes portraits of Napoleon, tricolour military sashes and medals, marble and bronze busts and statues of the emperor and other objects including Napoleon’s gloves, razor and pocket watch.
The collection even includes a white shirt worn by Napoleon at Sainte-Helene, estimated at 30,000 to 40,000 euros, and a pair of his white silk stockings, estimated at 4,000 to 5,000 euros.
All come from a collection of around 1,000 pieces of Napoleon memorabilia that belonged to Prince Louis II of Monaco (1870-1949), the great grandfather of current monarch Prince Albert.
The hat was acquired by Joseph Giraud, a vet in Napoleon’s household, and remained in his family until 1926 when it was sold to Prince Louis’ collection.
The collection, which also includes letters and documents relating to Napoleon’s reign, military exploits and exile and imprisonment on Saint Helena, is kept at the principality’s Napoleon Museum in Monte Carlo.
The great grandfather of Prince Albert of Monaco, head of the centuries-old House of Grimaldi, was a devoted Napoleonic collector. In the 1960s, the family created a museum, whose objects are now being auctioned to make room for one focusing on the family’s history.
“It’s a very well known collection, the provenance of the pieces is incontestable,” Thierry Lentz, director of the Napoleon Foundation said.
The bicorne, meaning two horizonal points, was a variation on the tricorne – or three-pointed hat – which was popular in the 17th century and favoured by American colonists around the time of the American revolution.
Two hundred years after his reign, Napoleon remains a popular historical figure.
Despite the size and breadth of the collection, Osenat said for Napoleon admirers - and for auctioneers - “the absolute top is to have a hat”.
* Agence France-Presse, with additional reporting from Reuters
