Napoleons Hat

Picture from the BBC website

At the weekend, just gone, over 1,000 of the Emperor Napoleons personal items were sold in an auction in Paris. I found this out in one of today’s newspapers.

The items where from a collection belonging to the royal family of Monaco and were sold to raise funds for restoration work for their palace.

One of the items was Napoleons hat, given to his veterinarian by Napoleon after the battle of Marengo in Italy 1800. The hat has not been worn since it was given to him as a gift. It is said that he had worn 120 similar hats during his career but only 19 of the two-pointed hats have survived. He wore his hats sideways to stand out from the other officers in his army.

Wellington said at Waterloo that “Napoleons hat is worth 40, 000 men” but it was actually worth 1.5 million and brought by a South Korean.

It was the first Napoleon hat to be auctioned since 1968.