Napoleon’s Hat Up For Auction In London - 09/06/21 09:40 PM
Any Dawgtalkers gonna bid?
Napoleon’s Hat Up For Auction In London: Antique Bicorne Bearing The Emperor’s DNA Could Fetch Up To $2 Million
Guy Martin
Senior Contributor
The last Napoleon felted beaver bicorne, pictured above before its auction in Paris in 2014, went for $2.2 million to a South Korean collector. Now on display in Bonhams Hong Kong showrooms is the latest Napoleon bicorne up for grabs — minus the rosette and its tab as seen above — set to travel on from Hong Kong to be put on display in Paris and in London in the coming weeks, before finally coming under the hammer in London on October 27.
Very conservatively, not to say laughably, estimated by Bonhams at somewhere between $140,000 and $180,000, it will likely top that price by several orders of magnitude.
By definition, all possessions belonging to Napoleon have extraordinary provenances, the “war hats” especially so, but the provenance of the current bicorne is especially fetching. Bought from a modest German auction house by an anonymous collector, it was not known by either of those parties to have belonged to the French emperor. But: The collector must have at least had a suspicion.
He or she let it be examined, and in this microscopically close examination, according to Bonhams, two hairs were found bearing the emperor’s distinctive DNA. The chance that those hairs of Napoleon’s could have been placed in a vintage bicorne not belonging to the Frenchman does, marginally, exist, but is considered as microscopic as the hairs themselves. At any rate, the fact that this perspicacious collector has done the DNA due diligence is expected to drive the auction price into the stratosphere.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/guymartin/2...-2-million/amp/
Napoleon’s Hat Up For Auction In London: Antique Bicorne Bearing The Emperor’s DNA Could Fetch Up To $2 Million
Guy Martin
Senior Contributor
The last Napoleon felted beaver bicorne, pictured above before its auction in Paris in 2014, went for $2.2 million to a South Korean collector. Now on display in Bonhams Hong Kong showrooms is the latest Napoleon bicorne up for grabs — minus the rosette and its tab as seen above — set to travel on from Hong Kong to be put on display in Paris and in London in the coming weeks, before finally coming under the hammer in London on October 27.
Very conservatively, not to say laughably, estimated by Bonhams at somewhere between $140,000 and $180,000, it will likely top that price by several orders of magnitude.
By definition, all possessions belonging to Napoleon have extraordinary provenances, the “war hats” especially so, but the provenance of the current bicorne is especially fetching. Bought from a modest German auction house by an anonymous collector, it was not known by either of those parties to have belonged to the French emperor. But: The collector must have at least had a suspicion.
He or she let it be examined, and in this microscopically close examination, according to Bonhams, two hairs were found bearing the emperor’s distinctive DNA. The chance that those hairs of Napoleon’s could have been placed in a vintage bicorne not belonging to the Frenchman does, marginally, exist, but is considered as microscopic as the hairs themselves. At any rate, the fact that this perspicacious collector has done the DNA due diligence is expected to drive the auction price into the stratosphere.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/guymartin/2...-2-million/amp/