HAIR OF EMPEROR NAPOLEON I A lock of some... - Lot 219 - Osenat

Lot 219
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Estimation :
4000 - 5000 EUR
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Result : 5 250EUR
HAIR OF EMPEROR NAPOLEON I A lock of some... - Lot 219 - Osenat
HAIR OF EMPEROR NAPOLEON I A lock of some hair presented in a folded paper, held together by a green twisted thread, fixed by a red wax seal to the profiles of Emperor Napoleon I and Empress Marie Louise, with handwritten annotation in pen: "Hair of the Emperor Napoleon. Brought to England by Jn Santini. 1817. "History: At the end of 1816, Lord Bathurst decided on the reduction of the staff of the Emperor's suite and the necessity of the departure of four persons, whom nevertheless Sir Hudson-Lowe would not allow himself to designate: They were Rousseau, Archambault, Piontowski and Santini. Montholon in his memoirs mentions Santini: "He was a nephew of the bishop of Ajaccio, and far above his station in education and spirit. His devotion knew no bounds, and perhaps it is to this excess of zeal that he was appointed by the Emperor to leave St Helena. Santini was a Corsican, and therefore devoted to his august compatriot. Now, the traditions of the "vendettes" in which he had been brought up, and which had followed him from his mountains to St. Helena, and the sun of the equator, were not made to calm this half-Italian, half-French blood, which new outrages came to irritate every day. It was with difficulty that the Emperor had obtained from him an oath to renounce the project he had formed one day of waiting for Hudson Lowe at the bend of a road and of killing him, as his countrymen are accustomed to do with their enemies. Santini, when this project was discovered by the Emperor, had promised to renounce it, but, for an organization as exalted as his own, the occasion must undoubtedly have made him forget his oath. So the Emperor did not hesitate to part with this faithful servant, rather than remain exposed to the terrible consequences of a devotion which he found so difficult to control. On October 18, 1846, Piontowski, Santini, Rousseau, and Archambault Young left Longwood and were embarked. The most thorough examination was made of their luggage and persons, but nothing suspicious was found on them. We had expected this visit, and we had too many means of secret communication with Europe to run the risk of unnecessarily aggravating the position of these brave people. Piontowski and Santini went to England, Rousseau and Archambault went to America, where they were taken in by the Count de Survilliers. All four of them took with them tokens of the Emperor's satisfaction for their services, and their independence was assured. "Jean Noël SANTINI was a courier of the Emperor's Household during the Empire. He went by his own means to the Island of Elba and was appointed bailiff and keeper of the portfolio. After his departure in 1816, he arrived in London, carrying an "appeal to the English nation" that he had learned by heart. Retired to Corsica, Santini returned to Paris in 1841 and applied for a job as a guard at the Invalides. For nearly twenty years, he watched over the coffin in the Saint Jerome chapel. Provenance: Descendants of the Dukes of Bassano. NAPOLEON'S HAIR BROUGHT TO ENGLAND IN 1817
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