A hat belonging to Napoleon I, the famous black bicorne with its blue, white and red cockade, sold at auction on Sunday for 1.932 million euros ($2.89 million), far exceeding the auction house’s estimates. , Osenat.
• Also read: A Napoleon bicorn hat that I presented to the public before its auction
The identity or nationality of the buyer was not disclosed.
This sale attracted “collectors from all over the world” and caused great excitement, the auction house, which broke its own record, told AFP; In 2014 she sold a Napoleon hat for 1.884 million euros.
The hat sold on Sunday was previously presented to the public and was valued at between 600,000 and 800,000 euros.
It was priced at 500,000 euros and therefore sold for almost four times as much at the auctions, which took place a few days before the release of a big-budget Napoleon biopic starring Joaquin Phoenix.
AFP
“The hat alone represents the image of the emperor,” auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat told AFP in October.
This hat was worn by Napoleon (1769-1821) “roughly in the middle of the Empire,” according to a Belgian author who listed the emperor’s headgear in 2007, Yves Moerman, according to the House of Osenat.
In about fifteen years, Napoleon may have used around 120 of them, which is why we may see some of them for sale at auction from time to time.
The previous record was 1.88 million euros in 2014, also from Osenat in Fontainebleau. It was acquired by a South Korean businessman and came from the collection of the Princely Family of Monaco.
AFP
In 2018, a hat that the house of De Baecque et Associés said was worn during the Battle of Waterloo was auctioned in Lyon for 350,000 euros.
This time the hat sold is part of the collection of Jean-Louis Noisiez, the founder of the cleaning and other business services group GSF, who died in 2022.
The tricorn hat was made by Pierre-Quentin-Joseph Baillon, the emperor’s quartermaster from 1806. According to experts, Napoleon added his cockade to it when he returned from the island of Elba in the Mediterranean on March 1, 1815.
The hat remained in his family until the end of the 19th century before being sold to various collectors. It was exhibited at the Empéri Museum in Salon-de-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône) from 1967 to 2002.