Wednesday 16 April 2014

Theft of Napoleon Memorabilia from the Briars (Australia)


I am saddened to hear of a major theft from the The Briars Homestead at Mount Martha, Victoria, Australia. originally the home of William Balcombe, father of Betsy, and the owner of the Briars on St Helena when Napoleon stayed there in 1815.

Below I have posted images of the valuable objects stolen.


DMB 86 Book of Fate

DMB 183 Miniature of Napoleon

DMB 184 Miniature of Josephine

DMB 246 Inkwell with three Napoleon gold coins set into base

DMB 271 Lock of Napoleon’s hair sewn onto a piece of paper

DMB 249 Rosicrucian Medal

DMB 257 Gold ring set with pearls and emeralds set around a woven piece of Napoleon’s hair

DMB 274 Gold locket with floral design of lacquered hair from Napoleon

Small portrait of Napoleon

DMB 259 Horn snuff box with central gold medallion

It is important that information about this theft is circulated as widely as possible to aid the efforts to recover them, so I would encourage anyone who has a web page to publish these images.

3 comments:

Hels said...

I hope the thieves fall under a Melbourne tram and get chopped into tiny little pieces :(

Of the 10 Napoleonic objects stolen, I particularly like the two portrait miniatures.

Thanks for the (sad) link,
Hels
http://melbourneblogger.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/napoleon-briars-and-melbourne.html

John Tyrrell said...

Hi Hels,

That sounds like a nasty end! I shall have to revise my image of you!

John

Hels said...

Trams are Melbourne's main city symbol. You could land on earth blindfolded and not know where you were, until you saw our trams :)

A fit punishment for a Melbourne thief.