A PURPLE SILK EMBROIDERED VELVET ROBE TRAIN

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THE PROPERTY OF MADAME TUSSAUDS 'RELICS OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON' (Lots 106-109) Madame Tussaud left France for England in 1802. In France she had dined with and modelled the figures of Marat and Robespierre during the Terror, was commissioned to take a cast of Marat's head after his murder (the model for David's celebrated painting), took death masks of guillotined revolutionary leaders, and modelled Napoleon, when he was First Consul, at the Tuileries. In May 1815, during the Hundred Days, her touring exhibition of 83 wax figures of public characters included 'a model of Buonaparte, which from portraits we have seen, conveys a most accurate idea of that extraordinary personage, who, although so insignificant in appearance, had almost attained the pinnacle of human ambition.' (Exeter: Flindell's western luminary, 9 May 1815). In 1842, Tussaud's elder son Joseph, thanks to a chance encounter in London, purchased Napoleon's Waterloo carriage which had caused such a stir when exhibited by Bullock at the Egyptian Hall in 1816, as English curiosity in the ex-Emperor raged. A 'New Room of Relics of the Emperor Napoleon' was advertised by Madme Tussaud & Sons in 1842, built around the carriage, and including a modelled figure of Napoleon on his deathbed surrounded by relics (amongst which objects from his bequest which descended to Lucien on Madame Mère's death to and purchases from Bullock's sale). The 'room' attracted a visit by the Duke of Wellington, and led to the Hayter painting (now lost) commissioned by Tussauds of the Iron Duke contemplating his erstwhile rival. The Tussauds' ledger for the early 1840s includes '27 September 1841 Napoleon's bedstead & Marengo cloak & clothes £400; Week ending January 16th 1842 Paid for Mantles of Napoleon and Josephine £105; 23 January 1842 Waterloo Carriage bought from Jeffreys, Grays Inn Road £52; May-July St Helena camp bed, Clothes & other items; Week ending July 24th 1842 Paid Mr Bullock for watch & diamond pin of Napoleon. £50'. Numerous other objects are acquired in 1842 for the 'Shrine of Napoleon', 'mostly purchased from Miss Gordon, who had them from Prince Lucien [Napoleon's brother], who lived in Etruria Lodge, St John's Wood' (The Mirror, 27 May 1843 -- the provenance then described: 'That these valuable objects have been preserved for British inspection, is a circumstance not a little remarkable. Napoleon seems to have been anxious they should not pass from his family. In his will the following bequest appears: -- 'I bequeath to my son the boxes, orders, and other articles; such as my plate, field bed, saddles, spurs, chapel plate, books, linen, which I have been accustomed to wear and use, according to the list (A) annexed. It is my wish that this slight bequest may be dear to him, as coming from a father of whom the whole will remind him.' In the list referred to, a number of articles are mentioned with directions respecting different portions to the Abbé Vignali and Count Bernard, to convey them to his son when he should be sixteen years of age. By some chance they never reached their destination. How this happened it is not known with certainty. It has been supposed that the late Emperor of Austria did not wish the young Prince to receive such a legacy. They, in consequence, passed into the hands of his mother, and at her death the whole of the property intended for young Napoleon was divided among the brothers and sisters of Bonaparte. The portion which fell to Lucien's share was sent to him at the Villa Etruria, St John's Wood. When he died it came into the possession of a Miss Gordon, from whom it passed to the present proprietors. The coronation robes, it may be proper to mention, were expelled from Notre Dame. Such a memorial of Napoleon could not be endured in that temple where once he had but been worshipped. The bed, boltester, and iron bedstead on which the effigy reposes are the ... bed &c on which Napoleon breathed his last.') The Tussaud advertisement in the Illustrated London News for 18 November 1843 listing 'camp bed on which he died in exile, late the property of Prince Lucien ... Cloak of Marengo ... magnificent cot of the King of Rome ... Table of the Marshals [table d'Austerlitz]', the latter now at Malmaison. The St Helena carriage was purchased in 1852, and in 1854 Napoleon III tried to reclaim the relics but considered the £30,000 asked for by the Tussauds too much to pay. The relics continued to be acquired through the 19th century -- the collection surviving until the disastrous fire that swept through Madame Tussaud's on 18 March 1925, destroying the Waterloo carriage and virtually all of the Napoleon Room. The robes, stored in a loft, survived and were mentioned in the Tussauds' catalogue for 1925.

Details

A PURPLE SILK EMBROIDERED VELVET ROBE TRAIN

with heavy gilt-metal thread raised-work border of wreaths and sprays with monogram 'N', and scattered raised-work bees across entire ground, the embroidery and initials probably 1st Empire (the gilt and silver plate decoration worn away) and re-applied to later purple silk velvet, with applied metal and white glass and wax bead accents, curved at one end and cut straight across at the other, modern backing -- 154 x 54in. (391 x 137cm.) approximately.

Provenance

(Probably to be identified with) Madame Tussaud ledger entry for 'Week ending Jan. 16 1842 Paid for mantles of Napoleon and Josephine £105.0.0' (no vendor recorded, although the ledger for 'Week ending Nov. 13 1842 refers 'Paid Miss Gordon the full amount of debt No. 3531842 on occasion of being sworn £105.0.0' and the Gordon source would suggest that the robes may have been amongst the numerous relics she 'had [...] from Prince Lucien, who lived in Etruria Lodge, St John's Wood' and sold on to Madame Tussaud's -- as recorded by MT ledger entries for October-November 1842): 'The Robes of Napoleon, the chief attraction of Notre Dame at Paris. They consist of 3 Imperial robes containing 567 square feet of velvet amd embroidery, one of which is perfect in every respect (as worn by His Majesty) with a superb ermine lining...' (MT poster 1842-43); Another Tussaud's catalogue indicates robes from another source: 'Coronation robe of Napoleon, sold at the restoration of Louis XVIII by the Abbé Canolini, from the cathedral of Notre Dame' (MT catalogue 1843, no. 103) (and see under 'Exhibited' below).

Exhibited

probably London, Bazaar, Baker-St., Portman Sqr., Madame Tussaud & Sons, New Room of Relics of the Emperor Napoleon forming a series of National Reminiscences of great interest, May 1843, no(s) 103(-104) 'The Robes of Napoleon, the chief attraction of Notre Dame at Paris. They consist of 3 Imperial robes containing 567 square feet of velvet and embroidery, one of which is perfect in every respect (as worn by His Majesty) with a superb ermine lining...' (MT poster 1842-43), 'Coronation robe of Napoleon, sold at the restoration of Louis XVIII by the Abbé Canoloni [Coriolis?], from the Cathedral of Notre Dame ... The robe of the Empress Josephine ... sold at the same time' (MT catalogue 1843).

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Lot Essay

One of a number of robes at Madame Tussauds in the 1840s associated with Napoleon and Josephine and Le Sacre. Traditionally known and advertised in the 1840s as Napoleon's 'coronation robes', the embroidery of the present robe differs in detail from the depictions and descriptions of Napoleon's robes worn to and at Notre Dame for Le Sacre. The present embroidery, period but applied to later velvet, may be a relic of one of the many robes 'looted' from Notre Dame in 1814-15 and subsequently exhibited at the Waterloo Gallery in Pall Mall in 1816 (for a list of which see below).

Napoleon wore a purple mantle embroidered with gems and gold in the Imperial cavalcade from the Tuileries to Notre Dame, before changing into his red (pourpre) coronation robes at the cathedral. 'The Emperor's grand costume on the day of coronation ... First of all a very ample crimson-red imperial robe, the grand mantle pourpre in the red of Imperial Rome. It was speckled with golden bees, his personal emblem, as well as with mythic motifs belonging to a 'romanized' academism: sprigs of laurel, and olive and oak leaves surrounding the initial N, embroidered with gold thread. The imperial robe's lining and border were in ermine and it was worn pinned to the left shoulder ...' (Age of Napoleon -- costume from Revolution to Empire 1789-1815, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989-1990).

While Napoleon's coronation robes are variously recorded as being deliberately destroyed in 1819, with just a fragment remaining, there are records of sales from Notre Dame (the Tussaud's robe catalogued in 1843 as 'sold at the Restoration of Louis XVIII by the Abbé Canolini [Coriolis?], from the cathedral of Notre Dame'), and the Notre Dame Archives record the 'Vente du velours des manteaux pour 300 francs', with a later note adding the ermine linings were sold separately. Numerous looted robes were exhibited at the Waterloo Museum, Pall Mall, in 1816, the museum catalogue recording 'Part of the Coronation Robes, stripped from the original at the Church of Notre Dame, by the Prussians. This is certainly the most splendid specimen of embroidery ever seen. The part on view formed the back and collar. The latter has a bee in the centre, surrounded with stars, and highly emblazoned with a glory, surrounding. Ears of Spanish wheat, and the palm, envelope the whole. The laurel and the oak ... fill up the remainder of the collar, which is bordered in a similar manner ... a widely diffused laurel, 20 inches in circumference, rises from the loins, surrounded by a glory and twelve stars ...' The same catalogue mentions several other purple mantles '62 State mantle "rich purple Genoa velvet, 9 yards of stuff (in width alone), white satin lining, border of oak and laurel leaf in gold etc"', '63 State Robe -- purple velvet similarly embroidered and lined. 84 Prince Jerome's robe -- purple velvet, silver embroidery of palm, pine and oak. 85. Joseph's (ex-King of Spain) mantle of Genoa velvet and similar to above 86. Ex-King's robe of finest purple velvet and silver embroidery 88. Mantle of Maître de Garde de Robe of purple velvet of large dimensions, faced and lined with the best orange silk.'

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