A hat of Napoleon I, the famous black bicorne with its blue, white and red cockade, sold on November 19, 2023 at 1.932 million euros (with fees) during auctions which far exceeded the auction house’s estimates , Osenat (AFP / Dimitar DILKOFF)
A hat of Napoleon I, the famous black bicorne with its blue, white and red cockade, sold for 1.932 million euros (with fees) on Sunday at auctions which far exceeded the estimates of the auction house, Osenat.
The identity or nationality of the buyer has not been communicated.
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 presented to the public beforehand and was valued at between 600,000 and 800,000 euros.
It was priced at 500,000 euros and therefore sold almost four times as much, during the auctions which took place a few days before the release of a big budget biopic devoted to Napoleon, with Joaquin Phoenix in the role -title.
“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) “around the middle of the Empire”, according to a Belgian author who listed the emperor’s headgear in 2007, Yves Moerman, according to the Osenat house.
In around fifteen years, Napoleon would have used around 120 of them, which allows us to see some of them for sale at auction from time to time.
The previous record was 1.884 million euros in 2014, also by Osenat in Fontainebleau. Acquired by a South Korean businessman, it came from the collection of the princely family of Monaco.
In 2018, a hat which, according to De Baecque et Associés, had been worn during the Battle of Waterloo, went for 350,000 euros in Lyon.
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 cocked hat was made by Pierre-Quentin-Joseph Baillon, the Emperor’s quartermaster from 1806. According to experts, Napoleon added his cockade to it while he was in the Mediterranean, returning from the island of Elba 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.