A lock of approximately 20 strands of Napoleon's dark hair, with superb provenance.
The strands are approx. 2 inches long and neatly tied together. They're presented in a wooden box with a glass panel in the lid (containing a further lock of dark braided hair - origin unknown).
The hair comes with the original wrapper in which the lock was preserved. Signed by an unidentified individual (P. Trin?) and annotated in their hand: ‘Bonaparte’s hair given by himself to Miss. E. Balcombe of St. Helena who gave it to me’.
Lucia Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Balcombe Abell (1802-1871) was an English resident on Saint Helena who, as a teenager, became a close friend of Napoleon during his exile on the island. Napoleon stayed at her family home for the first two months of his exile.
Her relationship with the Emperor aroused suspicion in Governor Hudson Lowe, who suspected her and her family of smuggling secret messages for Napoleon off the island.
The officers and servants who attended Napoleon were jealous of Balcombe, as she could address Bonaparte as ‘Boney’ without being reprimanded by him.
She later wrote a book about her friendship with Napoleon: Recollections of Emperor Napoleon.
Napoleon is one of history's most iconic figures. As emperor of France, his actions shaped Europe in the early 19th century.
Following a successful coup d'etat in 1799, Napoleon went on to conquer much of Western and North Eastern Europe.
Defeat in Russia and at the Battle of Waterloo has diminished the stature of his achievements. However, Napoleon was key in establishing a legal framework used across much of Europe, based on Meritocracy, and his military strategy is still widely studied across the world.
When the Duke of Wellington was asked to name the greatest general of the day, he answered: "In this age, in past ages, in any age, Napoleon."
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