Gold Bay Leaf Fom Napoleon's Crown to be Sold at Auction
1 Video View·Sep 28, 2023
A gold bay leaf that was created for Napoleon's crown will go under the hammer on Nov. 19. The crown, worn by the emperor in the famous painting by Jacques-Louis David, was deemed too heavy by its wearer and six large leaves were removed as a result. When the crown was melted during the Restoration, this leaf survived to become a symbol of the Napoleonic period.
He asked Biennet, this extraordinary artist,
Tabloutier, who was their favorite at the time,
to make him a crown.
But what crown? A laurel crown, of course, like Julius Caesar.
Biennet brought him this laurel crown,
he tried it on, and it was too heavy.
So he took off six leaves,
and Biennet kept these six leaves,
kept them, put them in boxes like this one,
in Moroccan boxes, and gave them to each of his daughters.
It's the only testimony of this era.
Why? Because when Napoleon was deposed in 1815,
when he left for St. Helene,
two years later, the king of France,
the royalty, Louis XVIII,
found that it was necessary to destroy
this very symbol of the grandeur of France
and the grandeur of the empire.
And we melted the crown of the sacrament of Napoleon I.
And so this crown no longer exists today.
And it remains today the only symbol of this era,
of this extraordinary moment,
of this moment of the sacrament,
well, it's this little leaf.