Pistols that a dejected Napoleon Bonaparte fingered in the days before he attempted to take his life are going under the hammer outside Paris this week. They are expected to bring in up to 17 million kronor.
Napoleon's condition was fragile in the evenings preceding his abdication and exile to Elba, after the tide of war turned and the sixth coalition occupied the French capital in the spring of 1814.
According to a statement from his advisor Caulaincourt, reproduced in the auction catalog, Napoleon's armorer reported that the French emperor often spoke loudly about ending his life and frequently inspected his pistols. It raised alarm bells.
After the defeat, he was completely depressed and wanted to take his life with these weapons, but his armorer hid the gunpowder, says auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat.
In the end, Napoleon chose to swallow the poison he constantly carried around his neck, on the night of April 13 at the Château de Fontainebleau outside Paris. But the poison was old by then and Napoleon survived. The day after, he signed his abdication, gave the pistols as a gift to Caulaincourt, and prepared for exile.
The following year, Napoleon suffered his final defeat at Waterloo, after a dramatic comeback.
The auction is being held at the Château de Fontainebleau this weekend. The pistols are described as the weapons that could have changed the course of history by the auction house Osenat.
