A hat of French Emperor Napoleon I, the famous black bicorn with its blue, white and red headdress, will be sold at auction in France in November, the Osenat house announced on Wednesday.
This hat was used by Napoleon (1769-1821) “in the middle of the empire”, according to Yves Moerman, a Belgian author who listed the emperor’s object in 2007 and highlighted Osenat in a statement, without giving any price estimate.
In about fifteen years, Napoleon will have used about 120 of these hats, making it possible to occasionally see some at auction, the agency France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The record is 1.9 million euros for a hat sold in 2014, also by Osenat, in Fontainebleau, near Paris.
In this occasion The hat was acquired by a South Korean businessman, was in very good condition and belonged to the collection of the Royal Family of Monaco.
In 2018, a hat that, according to De Baecque et Associés, had been used during the Battle of Waterloo, was sold in Lyon (middle-eastern France) for 350 thousand euros including costs.
This time the hat sold is part of the collection of Jean Louis Noisiez, founder of the cleaning and other business services group GSF, who died in 2022.
The sale is scheduled for November 19 in Fontainebleau.
The slanted hat was made by Pierre-Quentin-Joseph Baillon, the emperor’s steward since 1806.
According to experts, Napoleon added his headdress while in the Mediterranean, returning from the island of Elba on March 1, 1815.
The hat remained in the family until the end of the 19th century, before being sold to various collectors.
It was exhibited in a museum in southeastern France between 1967 and 2002.
Source: DN
