Lot 62 , Napoleon Bonaparte interest: A lock of his hair, known as Boneys Whiskers and a bracelet portrait miniature of Napoleon

Napoleon Bonaparte interest: A lock of his hair, known as 'Boney's Whiskers' and a bracelet portrait miniature of Napoleon complete with letters from Countess Charlotta Maria Rosenblad nee Toutin, wife of Swedish First Minister, cousin of James Henry Beck; thence by descent. Second letter in Swedish dated 1855 and English translation. Third letter from John White dated 1871 referring to Colonel Cloete, one of the guards at St Helena. Fourth letter signed by John White passing the heirloom to Emily Beck White, and a daguerreotype of the portrait miniature dated c. 1855.
Estimate £7,000-10,000

Provenance - Countess Charlotta Maria Rosenblad nee Toutin to her cousin James Henry Beck; thence by family descent. General Sir Abraham Josias Cloëté's aunt Catharina Cloete (1772 -1830) was married to Reynier Beck (b. 1769)

General Sir Abraham Josias Cloëté KCB (7 August 1794 – 26 October 1886) was an Afrikaner senior officer in the British Army.
He was born in Cape Town, the son of Pieter Lourens Cloëté, member of the council of the Cape of Good Hope, and Catharina Maria Van Zeeman.[3] On 29 January 1809, he joined the British Army as a cornet in the 16th Hussars.

He transferred to the 15th Hussars on their return from Corunna, serving with them during the Burdett riots of 1810 and the Luddite disturbances in the Midlands and Lancashire of the following years. In 1813 he exchanged as a captain to the 21st Light Dragoons at the Cape, where he acted as aide-de-camp to the newly appointed governor, Lord Charles Somerset. Whilst stationed there he commanded a military detachment, made up of volunteers from regiments at the Cape, which occupied the remote desert island of Tristan da Cunha soon after the arrival of the Emperor Napoleon on Saint Helena.

The portrait miniature is a contemporary copy (c. 1805-10) after an original drawing by Jean-Baptiste Isabey, undertaken in 1805. It shows Napoleon in his coronation robes and was designed to be worn on a bracelet.


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