A small 19th Century wooden chair goes under the hammer tomorrow.
The chair show some age wear, has a missing spindle, and has woodworm holes.
Yet the estimate is £10-15,000.
It is claimed to be the chair on which Napoleon rested before the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The chair is accompanied by two officially certified documents of provenance in French.
One of which reads:
'The undersigned states and certifies with entire lucidity that he has very often and for many years heard Pauline Cambier, Joseph Lequeux' spouse that she had come from Courcelles bringing with her a chair that had been given to her by her father, on which Napoleon had rested while staying at his home in 1815 for the Battle of Waterloo. She had always kept it with greatest care. The said chair is presently owned by Mr. Henry Hecq-Andre at Fontaine l'Eveque'
The town of Courcelles is 22 miles from Waterloo.
Furniture with impeccable provenance has been selling well at auction.
We recently reported how Sir Winston Churchill's personal leather sofa sold for 90 times its estimate at £9,000.
In addition the settee where Edward VIII met Mrs Simpson also recently sold for £2,150, smashing the estimate of £300-400.
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