Napoleon Antiques

 It is always good to spot Napoleon in my travels.  My eye finds him tucked into many corners and cabinets.  In this display they had a plate and two bookends.

Thinking about it.

Do I need two cognac themed 

bookends for $295?

General's Wing To Be Restored!

Save Napoleon I’s residence on St Helena
International Appeal

 From napoleon.org site

With their donations both large and small, nearly 1,200 companies and private individuals have to date contributed to the campaign to save the home of Napoleon I on the island of St Helena. We offer our most sincere thanks for their efforts.

Today, we can announce that our fund raising appeal has reached its first goal, set at 700,000 €, to fund the restoration of the Generals' Wing. This has been added to the 700,000 € set aside by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Work is scheduled to begin before the end of 2012. This fantastic news can only serve to encourage us towards one last effort.

Thanks to the generosity of one and all, we are now in a position to continue our work and proceed with restoring the interiors and furniture of the emperor's apartments. For this, a further 200,000 € is required, which - once added to the sum already raised by the appeal - will allow us to:

- restore the drapes, carpets, and tapestries in the bedroom, the bathroom, and the salon at Longwood (the latter was the room in which the emperor died).

- repatriate to France one-hundred or so original items of furniture from Longwood to allow specialists to restore them. Once this work is complete, they will be placed on public display in a specially-organised exhibition, before being transported back to St Helena.

We understand the current economic climate is not ideal, and that this is just one of many fundraising requests that we all receive throughout the year, but we should nevertheless like to appeal to you one final time, be it for the 2011 fiscal year, or for that of 2012. It really is an important, most Napoleonic cause.

If we are successful in this new goal, we shall all have contributed to the most extensive restoration project undertaken since the 1860s, an achievement most worthy of national recognition.

Vincenzo Vela Statue of Napoleon

I have a very old book about Napoleon that included an illustration of a Napoleon Statue I have never seen.  Called "Dernier Jours de Napoleon" or The Last days of Napoleon I found a link to this picture on Napoleon.org.   My original book said the statue was at the Versailles Museum but I have never seen it.  Napoleon.org reported that it was now:  Rueil-Malmaison, musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et de Bois Préa.

Chateau Malmaison?  

I have been there too and never saw the statue.  

So I went to that website and discovered another Museum 

I need to now add to my to-do list:  Musées de l’Île d’Aix

They have a Napoleon section!

When you research Napoleon online you can go to dozens of sites 

before getting an answer to your question.  

I did finally discover that the statue was unveiled in either 1878 or 1867.  It is very powerful to look at.  The cloth and paper look so real!  Further research shows that small copies are still popping up at auctions.

A little about the artist:

Having started work as a stonecutter when still very young, Vela received his initial training at Viggiù and then moved to Milan, where he worked on the Cathedral.  His repertoire of funerary monuments, portraits and public works drawing inspiration from the struggle for national liberation proved a great success also in France, where his work dedicated to the last days of Napoleon’s life won a prize at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867 and ensured his renown.