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Lot Essay
On Sunday night, June 18th 1815, the date marking the crucial defeat of the French at Waterloo, Napoleon's military carriage was seized by the Prussian Major Von Keller. While Napoleon originally set off to escape the battle in his carriage, he found the road at Genappes completely blocked and had to abandon it, alongside the many treasures that it held, including his hat, sword, telescope and a handsome uniform inlaid with diamonds.
Shortly after the battle, the carriage was shipped to England and presented to the Prince Regent as a trophy of victory; it was then sold off by the British government for £2,500 to famous traveller, antiquarian and sculptor William Bullock, brother of the cabinet-maker George, who exhibited it in 1816 at his London Museum, the Egyptian Hall on 22 Piccadilly. The carriage aroused the curiosity of the British and the exhibition was a great success, earning Bullock some £35,000. It changed hands a few more times and was eventually bought and exhibited by Madame Tussaud’s in 1842, where it remained on display for 80 years until it was destroyed in the notorious fire of 1925.
Many images and documentation about the carriage have been lost, however a detailed description, transcribed on the night of June 19, 1815, makes mentions of a bottle of wine:
“The interior of this remarkable carriage deserves particular attention, for it is adapted to the various purposes of an office, a bed room, a dressing room, a kitchen and an eating room. (…) The liquor case, like the necessaire, is made of mahogany; it contains two bottles, one of them still has the rum which was found in it at the time, the other contains some extremely fine old Malaga wine”
While the precise date at which Michael Shaw Stewart acquired this bottle is unknown, it is mentioned in an article published in the Glasgow Constitutional as early as 1840. This article, whose author is James McNab, Scottish horticulturist and principal gardener of the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh from 1849, relates a visit at Ardgowan House:
“…within three or four miles of the spot where they [the visitors of the area] are somnambulating, there is a most splendid portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte, for which £3,000 has been refused, – as also a bottle of wine, undrawn, taken from his carriage at Waterloo (…). The bottle of wine is contained in a wicker basket. On the side of the bottle, surrounded by a device, there is the letter ‘N’.”
Shortly after the battle, the carriage was shipped to England and presented to the Prince Regent as a trophy of victory; it was then sold off by the British government for £2,500 to famous traveller, antiquarian and sculptor William Bullock, brother of the cabinet-maker George, who exhibited it in 1816 at his London Museum, the Egyptian Hall on 22 Piccadilly. The carriage aroused the curiosity of the British and the exhibition was a great success, earning Bullock some £35,000. It changed hands a few more times and was eventually bought and exhibited by Madame Tussaud’s in 1842, where it remained on display for 80 years until it was destroyed in the notorious fire of 1925.
Many images and documentation about the carriage have been lost, however a detailed description, transcribed on the night of June 19, 1815, makes mentions of a bottle of wine:
“The interior of this remarkable carriage deserves particular attention, for it is adapted to the various purposes of an office, a bed room, a dressing room, a kitchen and an eating room. (…) The liquor case, like the necessaire, is made of mahogany; it contains two bottles, one of them still has the rum which was found in it at the time, the other contains some extremely fine old Malaga wine”
While the precise date at which Michael Shaw Stewart acquired this bottle is unknown, it is mentioned in an article published in the Glasgow Constitutional as early as 1840. This article, whose author is James McNab, Scottish horticulturist and principal gardener of the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh from 1849, relates a visit at Ardgowan House:
“…within three or four miles of the spot where they [the visitors of the area] are somnambulating, there is a most splendid portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte, for which £3,000 has been refused, – as also a bottle of wine, undrawn, taken from his carriage at Waterloo (…). The bottle of wine is contained in a wicker basket. On the side of the bottle, surrounded by a device, there is the letter ‘N’.”