A Napoleon hat up for auction

A hat of Emperor Napoleon I, the famous black bicorne with its blue, white and red cockade, is to be sold at auction in November, the Osenat house announced on Wednesday October 4. This hat was worn by Napoleon "around the middle of the Empire", according to a Belgian author who listed them in 2007, Yves Moerman, Osenat reported in a press release.

During the fifteen years he wore them, Napoleon would have used around 120, which allows us to see some at auction from time to time. The record is 1.884 million euros for a hat sold in 2014, also by Osenat in Fontainebleau. Acquired by a South Korean businessman, it was in very good condition, and 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, sold for 350,000 euros including costs, 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 sale is scheduled for Fontainebleau (Seine-et-Marne) on November 19. 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, 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. It is “in taupe felt called black beaver” and “no longer has an interior cap but has kept his sheepskin headband” which was supposed to absorb perspiration, Osenat said. No price estimate has been communicated.