Overall: 24.5cm (9.6in) x 23cm (9in)
Provenance:
Napoleon, Emperor of the French
Lucia Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Balcombe (1802-1871)
Dr Barry O’Meara (1786-1836)
Dr F.J. Prior of Tewkesbury (1818-1865)
Lt-Col. Thomas Beale Cooper, East Worcestershire Militia (1774-1854) and hence by decent
Strands of Napoleon’s hair together with a small early 19th century envelope (69mm x 117mm) inscribed in manuscript ‘Buonapartes Hair’ / given by Miss Balcombe to B. O’Meara’, and a folded peice of paper (44mm x 84mm) inscibed ‘Bonaparts Hair / The gift of Miss E Balcombe / Sep 2nd 1818'. Framed and glazed.
When Napoleon arrived in exile on St Helena in late 1815, Longwood House was being refurbished for his use and he spent the first seven weeks at the Briars, a small pavillion that was home to Thomas Balcombe, an East India Company official and his family. Betsy Balcombe was the second of the Balcombes’ four children. Though brought up to view Napoleon as ‘an ogre’,14-year old Betsy found him ‘ever ready to enter into every sort of mirth with the glee of a child’, and despite severely testing his patience, she ‘never knew him to lose his temper or fall back on his rank or age’.
Dr Barry O’Meara was the senior surgeon on the HMS Bellerophon when Napoleon surrendered at La Rochelle in July 1815. Napoleon was most impressed by the Irish doctor and asked O’Meara to be his personal physician. O’Meara agreed and informed the Admiralty that he would not act as a spy. O’Meara’s insistence on this condition ultimately cost him his post and in July 1818 he was forced from the island.