San Francisco Frontiers - 'True miracle': Napoleon's long-lost hat to go on display

The black felt bicorne was presented to the media on Thursday and will be exhibited at the Chateau de Chantilly, north of Paris, later in the year.

Mathieu Deldicque, director of the Conde Museum, where the headdress will go on display, said the find was a "true miracle", stressing that all of its parts were well preserved.

"This hat is a revelation," he said. "We know every stage of its history, from Napoleon's exile on Saint Helena right up to the present day."

Jean‑Guillaume Parich of the Army Museum, who confirmed the beaver felt hat's authenticity, said it was one of the four headpieces taken by the deposed emperor into his final exile on the island of Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.

"There are even some rather moving, rather touching details -- namely, its silk lining shows clear signs of perspiration," he said.

"One can really picture the emperor in his final years."

In his will, written shortly before his death in 1821, Napoleon left several imperial keepsakes -- including two of his last hats -- to his son, the King of Rome.

But the gifts never reached Napoleon II, who died of a lung infection in 1832.

The imperial estate, brought back from Saint Helena, was awarded in 1836 to Napoleon's sister Caroline Murat.

The hat eventually entered the Conde Museum collections in 1904.

But it was quickly placed in the storeroom and was for a long time "unknown to all specialists and enthusiasts of the Napoleonic era," said Deldicque.

It was only in 2025, while preparing an exhibition, that Parich managed to trace the hat's journey and confirm its authenticity.

Made by Poupard, Napoleon's official hatmaker, the headpiece displays all the hallmark features of an authentic imperial bicorne, including its distinctive proportions, a small tricolour cockade, and a silk‑taffeta lining, Parich said.

Napoleon is believed to have ordered between 60 and 80 such hats, he said.

Unlike most other officers at the time, Napoleon wore his hat sideways, which gave him a distinct silhouette easily recognised by his troops in battle.

Around 15 of such hats have been fully authenticated, most of them now held in museum collections, said Parich.

The newly authenticated hat will serve as the centrepiece of an exhibition devoted to the art collections of Napoleon's sister, opening in early June.

Napoleonic memorabilia fetch sky‑high prices at auctions. In 2023, a hat belonging to Napoleon when he was French emperor sold for a record of nearly two million euros.

F.Young--SFF