To Be Auctioned End Of Year, Shirts To Napoleon's Letter On Display In Belgium

Illustration of Napoleon Bonaparte's painting (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - A shirt worn by Napoleon Bonaparte during his exile on Saint Helena Island in the South Atlantic. As well as a letter he wrote there to practice his English, on display in one of the museums in Belgium, ahead of an auction later this year in the UK.

A silk scarf she wore on her head at a wind-blown British outpost was also on display, along with a walking stick made of narwhal teeth, a rare and precious item from the daily life of the exiled former French emperor in Saint Helena.

The exhibition at the Battle of Waterloo memorial museum, near Brussels, is part of the bicentennial of Napoleon's death, on May 5, 1821, when he was 51.

The letter was one of the few texts written by Napoleon in English that still exists. The letter has no address and is believed to have been dictated to by his secretary, as part of improving his ability to speak English.

"Napoleon, before arriving on the island of Saint Helena, could not write or speak Shakespearean", Antoine Champagne, one of the curators of the Waterloo exhibition, told Reuters Wednesday, May 12.

"His secretary, Emmanuel de Las Cases, knows how to speak English because he's been living in England for a few years. So he taught her", he explained.

The letter is expected to get the highest price of all items to be sold at auction in Bonhams, London on 27 October 2021.

"When you hear it in the past, several million pounds have been paid for at least one important item of Napoleonic memorabilia, this puts it in perspective", says Simon Cottle of Bonhams.

Curators and auctioneers of Waterloo in London say the objects explain Napoleon's final days in exile, as he wrote his memoirs to try and perpetuate his legacy as a military genius and visionary leader.

Some say his achievements, especially the structuring of the legal and institutional foundations that still sustain parts of modern France, make him worthy of commemoration. Others responded that his record of military aggression, his disoriented instincts, and his decision to restore slavery after it was abolished, meant that he should not be respected.