The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Napoleon key sells after bidding war
T yearshe key to Napoleon’s prison bedroom on St Helena, where he died in exile 200 ago, has fetched £81,900 at auction.
The steel key, which was kept for more than 100 years in a trunk in a Scottish country house, made more than 16 times its estimate at Sotheby’s in London, after a bidding war among collectors.
French emperor Napoleon spent his final six years on the South Atlantic island of St Helena, 1,162 miles off the coast of Africa, living under guard in Longwood House, a mansion converted for him by the British Government.
Following his death in 1821, the key to the room in which he died was taken by Charles Fox, a young naval officer who would later become a politician.
The 13cm-long key, which dates to around 1815, was the highlight of Sotheby’s annual Royal and Noble sale, this year being held online, where it was valued at £3,000 to £5,000.
A late flurry of bids saw the price rise steeply from £17,000 to £81,900 in just a few minutes.
Fox is thought to have given the key to his mother, Elizabeth Vassall Fox, Baroness Holland, who was an admirer of Napoleon and best known today for introducing the dahlia to the UK.
The unique memento came with a piece of paper, on which Fox wrote: “Key of the Room at Longwood, in which Napoleon died and which I took out of the lock myself / C. R. Fox, St Helena, 6th Sept. 1822.”
On a further folded sheet, Fox noted: “Bit of the Paper, close to the spot where Napoleon’s bed, in which he died, stood / St Helena 1822 C. R. Fox.”
Baroness Holland was said to be obsessed with Napoleon and met the French emperor in 1802 at the French government headquarters at Château de Malmaison, near Paris, which was also the private residence of Napoleon and his wife Josephine.
She corresponded with him when he was exiled on the Mediterranean island of Elba in 1814, and later sent food and books to him on St Helena.
David Macdonald from Sotheby’s said: “We often see objects associated with Napoleon, but there is something very special about the key. It is unique and powerful, especially as it was the key to the room in which he died.
“Thankfully Charles Fox realised its importance as a relic and made these amazing little notes. It was passed down through the family and has been in a Scottish house, outside Edinburgh, for at least 100 years.”