Napoleon’s English Letter Sells at Auction for $410,000
Posted: June 11th, 2012 | Author: Verity Penfold | Filed under: Art and About - Melbourne, Art News | Tags: Count of Las Cases, Memorial of Saint Helena, Napoleon Bonaparte, NGV Napoleon Revolution to Empire, Osenat, Saint Helena | Comments Off
A rare letter written in English by Napoleon Bonaparte has fetched €325,000/$AU410,000 at auction in Paris.
The single page letter – dated March 9, 1816 – scribed by Napoleon during his post-Waterloo exile on the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, it is one of just three known to be in existence, auction house Osenat said ::::
Addressed to the Count of Las Cases – Napoleon’s companion in exile – the letter was acquired by the private Museum of Letters and Manuscripts in Paris and originally estimated to fetch just 60,000 to 80,000 euros.
In his “Memorial of Saint Helena”, Las Cases wrote of how Napoleon began to correspond with him in English in order to practise the language of his jailers.
The Count also wrote in particular of the auctioned letter, saying: “The emperor did not sleep that night – during his insomnia, he decided to write me a new letter in English.”
“He sent it sealed to me, I corrected his errors, and replied to him, in English also, by mail. ”He understood the letter, and that convinced him of his progress and proved to him that he could, completely, correspond in his new language.”
Despite Las Cases’ encouraging words, Napoleon’s writing required some guesswork.
In one passage, Napoleon wrote: “He shall land above seven day a ship from Europe that we shall give account from anything who this shall have been even to day of first January thousand eight hundred sixteen.”
Napoleon was referring to a ship from Europe that would dock in seven days, bringing news on what had happened since January 1, 1816.
After his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, Napoleon was imprisoned and then exiled to Saint Helena, where he died in 1821 age 51.
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source: afp
