Overall: 20cm (8in) x 22cm (8.7in)
Provenance:
Dr Barry O’Meara (1786-1836)
Dr F.J. Prior of Tewkesbury (1818-1865)
Mrs Elizabeth Prior
Lt-Col. Thomas Beale Cooper, East Worcestershire Militia (1774-1854) and hence by decent
Strands of Napoleon’s hair together with a small period manuscript note (88mm x 110mm) inscribed, ‘This hair given by B. O’Meara to / F.J. Prior, Esqr, Tewkesbury - by Mrs Prior to me Mr . Beale Cooper / ‘Twig from the Willow at Longwood / picked up by Joseph Whalley 1822.’
Public interest in Napoleon’s fate after Waterloo resonated with both the vanquished and the vanquishers. The victors relished his exile on the island fastness of St. Helena while it also proved a focal point for the Napoleon cult that was kept alive by countless veterans of his armies, Romantics and anti-establishment supporters. In 1840 politically motivated admirers returned Napoleon’s mortal remains from St Helena to France in 1840. The French officials also brought back souvenirs from the dramatic and romantic setting of the Valley of Willows. Such souvenirs included plants and stones from the burial place, pieces of the sarcophagus, and even water samples from the source from which the Emperor drank.