Ban on Export of "Napoleon Death Mask"

The Independent 13th November, 2013

Apparently the Culture Secretary Ed Vaizey has been swayed by the advice of Ms Leslie Webster and has put a temporary block on the export of the rather dubious Boys death mask of Napoleon:

The sense that you are in the presence of Napoleon is very strong. There are many grandiose portraits, as well as contemporary British caricatures of this great and controversial figure, but this deathbed image speaks far more directly to us – here we see the man himself, and sense his charisma, even in death. (1)

The Independent trots out the usual claim about Boys and Napoleon of which there is not a shred of evidence, but does sensibly attribute that claim to the auction house that sold the mask:

Rev Boys played chess with Napoleon and brought several mementos of him when he returned to England, according to Bonhams .

It will be interesting to see if anyone comes up with the money. I can't really see the reason for doing so, particularly since the other Napoleon death mask allegedly made for Rev Boys on St Helena, the Sankey mask, is in the country.

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1. Ms Leslie Webster as quoted in The Independent , November 13th 2013.

Anyone for a Flight to St Helena?

Article on Atlantic Star Airline, St Helena Independent 18th October 2013

Before leaving for a meeting of the Friends of St Helena in London yesterday, about which perhaps more some other time, I read the above article by Vince Thompson in the St Helena Independent.

Apparently Captain Andy Radford of Atlantic Star Airline is hopeful, confident even, that his compasny will be the preferred supplier of air services to St Helena. At the moment Atlantic Star has no planes, but plans to lease a single Boeing 757.

The proposed initial route is Gatwick or Stansted - Madrid - St Helena - Cape Town, and then back again, once a week, with monthly flights to Ascension.

Atlantic Star thinks that a Boeing 757 is the right choice for St Helena's short runway, and it would propose to adapt its plane to allow it to carry more fuel, necessary given the distance of backup airports from St Helena.

Boeing 757: soon to be a regular sight on St Helena?

The plane would then have a reduced capacity of 120 passengers. Although the 757 is no longer in production, Atlantic Star is confident it can find one to lease. In the unlikely event that the 757 ever breaks down then no worries, Atlantic Star will sign a contract with a company that specialises in providing backup in cases of technical difficulties!

Atlantic Star hopes by the end of 2017 to be able to run two flights a week. So, best case scenario, that would make 240 passengers from Europe per week, and 240 from South Africa, making an annual total of almost 25,000 tourists if all the planes were full, and none of the passengers were Saints or expatriates returning to live or work on St Helena. Those are rather fanciful assumptions, which illustrates just how big a task it will be to get the 50,000 tourists a year that Government plans anticipate. Crucial of course will be the cost of flights, and Atlantic Star anticipates that it will be no more and hopefully less than a current Fly/Sail package between the UK and St Helena, which for the very cheapes berths on the RMS St Helena would I think currently be around £1600 via Ascencion Island.

Atlantic Star's plans require a Government subsidy for the first five years or so. No indication is given of how big this would be, and I am unclear whether such a subsidy is included within the £250 million the British Government has allocated to build and run the airport for 10 years.

Frankly I am a little underwhelmed by this. It is beginning to look to me as if the new airport will have plenty of spare capacity for the private jets and military aircraft that a number of sceptics have predicted. A respected member of the Friends of St Helena told me yesterday that he expects the RMS St Helena to be with us for rather longer than the Government is currently admitting.

I hope this pessimism is without foundation, but anyway we should get a clearer idea of the St Helena Government's plans by the middle of 2014.

"Napoleon's Desk" at Downton Abbey: all is not what it seems

"Napoleon's Desk" at Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey)

During our stay on St Helena earlier this year we visited Longwood House after 30 or so pieces of furniture had been removed, packed and sent to Paris for renovation in time for an exhibition planned at Les Invalides in 2016. Not long after our return to the UK we received with some incredulity a report from a friend that she had just seen Napoleon's desk from Longwood House at Highclete Castle!

Sure enough a web search revealed that such claims were made for this piece of furniture by the current owners of Highclere as recently as January 2012:

The mahogany desk and chair in the Music Room belonged to Napoleon. “They were bought by the third earl of Carnarvon in 1821 after Napoleon’s death,” Lady Carnarvon said. The chair was made for Napoleon, and the Carnarvons have a sketch of him by it circa 1804. "The desk is probably from the same period, and both pieces went with him into exile at Longwood house on St. Helena,” she said, referring to the island where Napoleon died. (1)

Another article, dated April 2013 claims

The green leather-topped desk and carved griffin-image chair were created by Jacob Frères, the furniture-making company of the brothers Georges II and François-Honoré Jacob from 1796 to 1803. Napoleon took the desk and chair with him into exile on the Island of St. Helena after his defeat at Waterloo. The pair was purchased by the 3rd Earl of Carnarvon in 1821 after Napoleon’s death that year. (2)

Now one thing we do know with certainty is that other than his camp bed, on which he died, Napoleon took no furniture with him to St Helena. We also know that all the furniture at Longwood was English, and as the furniture restorer currently working on the Longwood furniture in Paris said to me, it is far inferior to the pieces on display at Highclere Castle.

Highclere Castle, home of the Carnarvon family, scene of the TV series, "Downton Abbey"

In view of these erroneous claims I contacted Highclere. I was informed that the guides had originally been told that the desk was English, probably by George Bullock, and was purchased for Napoleon by the Britsh Government. This information was changed a few years ago to say that it was made by the same person who had made the chair stamped ‘Jacob Freres rue Meslee’, which did not come from Longwood House, contrary to the quotations above. I was also informed that the desk was purchased in 1827, being part of the contents of Longwood House, and that Highclere Castle has a note from Napoleon’s chaplain (presumably Vignali not the ubiquitous Rev Boys) saying that it came from St Helena after Napoleon's death. (3)

The archivist at Highclere later confirmed to me that there have been changes in the attribution of the desk, but also that there is very little about it in the archives. So I think we can state with certainty that none of the conflicting stories linking this desk to Longwood House have any credibility. The furniture in Longwood House was British, this beautiful desk is French, it was not taken by Napoleon to St Helena.

The most logical explanation is that the 3rd Lord Carnarvon was the victim of a scam, and that his descendants have been clutching at straws in order to validate the desk's faulty provenance. One would have hoped that at the very least the owners might have contacted the curator at Longwood House before allowing such claims to be made, but in any case I think it is time to tell the truth.

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1.Los Angeles Times, Jan 30 2012

2. Southeastern Antiquing and Collecting Magazine, April 2013

3. Boys was the Anglican priest who never actually met Napoleon but along with his descendants has been the source of much confusion. I have written a number of blogs about Rev Boys, concerning another armchair allegedly from Longwood, about other confusing claims and the death masks his family years later claimed were made for Rev Boys on St Helena.

In the Footsteps of Napoleon: Madeira, Henry Veitch and Winston Churchill

The 1792 "Napoleon Madeira"

A recent visit to Madeira made me look up the story of Napoleon's brief stay off shore on board HMS Northumberland in August 1815. I first heard of this from a friend who writes a wine blog.

The only person allowed to go on board the Northumberland and meet Napoleon was the then British Consul, Henry Veitch. A Scotsman, born in Selkirk, who spent most of his life on Madeira, Veitch played a very important part in Madeira's somewhat complex history in the first half of the nineteenth century. A man of liberal sympathies, who was also a strong supporter of Madeiran autonomy, Veitch served as Consul from 1809 until 1834.

Henry Veitch (1782-1857), British Consul-General on Madeira

He was suspended from duties in 1828, at the commencement of the Portuguese Civil War, but still retained some influence and was restored by Palmerston in 1831. At least one of the guide books eerroneously says that he was dismissed for calling Napoleon "your Majesty".

Veitch's visit on board was recorded at the time by Admiral Cockburn's Secretary, John Glover

Mr. Veitch, His Majesty's consul, visited the ship, of whom Bonaparte asked numerous questions with respect to the island, its produce, the height above the level of the sea, its population, &c. Mr. Veitch dined on board, and after dinner Bonaparte walked with him and the admiral a considerable time, conversing on general topics, when he retired at once to his bedroom without joining the card-table. (1)

As the story goes Veitch gave Napoleon some fruits and other gifts, and persuaded him to take a pipe of Madeira, a barrel containing around 600 bottles.

Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Funchal

Veitch always claimed that he was never paid for the Madeira, but he was given some gold coins by Napoleon. According to the accepted story, these were buried beneath the foundation stone of the Anglican church in Funchal, the building of which was supervised by Veitch.

Napoleon's own reaction to Madeira was recorded by another Englishman on board the Northumberland, William Warden:

On our approach to Madeira, the hazy state of the atmosphere precluded the possibility of seeing the Island, until we got close between Puerto Santo and the Deserts. The latter rocky island is almost perpendicular; and has some slight resemblance to St. Helena. This circumstance I mentioned to De las Cases, and he instantly communicated it to Napoleon, who had quitted the dinner-table sooner than usual, and joined a few of us on the poop: but the comparison of what he now saw, with his gloomy notions of the place where he was shortly to abide, produced not a single word. He gave an energetic shrug, and a kind of contemptuous smile; and that was all. The sloping front and luxuriant aspect of the island of Madeira could not but excite an unpleasant sensation, when contrasted with the idea he had entertained of the huge black rock of St. Helena. (2)

The barrel of Madeira was never opened by Napoleon, and after his death was returned to the island where it remained with Blandy’s until 1840. Most of it was used to make the famous solera of 1792, but some 200 bottles were filled solely from Napoleon’s barrel. Such bottles are now very rare, and very valuable. One of these was given to that great admirer of Napoleon, Winston Churchill, when he holidayed at Reid's Palace on Madeira in 1950.

Winston Churchill painting at Câmara de Lobos, the small fishing village above which Henry Veitch built a fine house, now the Quinta Jardim Da Serra Hotel

Sir Winston insisted on pouring a glass for each guest, commenting "Do you realise that when this wine was vintaged Marie Antoinette was still alive?".

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1. Napoleon's last voyages : being the diaries of Sir Thomas Ussher, (on board the "Undaunted"), and John R. Glover, secretary to Rear Admiral Cockburn (on board the "Northumberland") p 165

2. Letters written on board His Majesty's Ship the Northumberland and at St. Helena’ (1816), William Warden pp 73-4

Images of Napoleon on St Helena 1818-1821

NAPOLEON I two months before his death, sketched from the life by the English Naval Captain Maryat [sic]

I have in the past posted some images of Napoleon made after his death. I thought it might be interesting to display these lesser known images of him made made by Englishmen on the island in the later years of his captivity.

Napoleon 1820, from drawing made by Captain Henry Duncan Dodgin of 66th Regiment

I have serious doubts about the very unflattering portrait with the German inscription, allegedly painted by Captain Marryat in 1821. Napoleon ventured out so little in the weeks before his death that it would have been near impossible to have made an accurate sketch of him, and I would be surprised if he ever willingly posed for one of his captors.

Napoleon 1818, painting by Basil Jackson

I also wonder if there was not a certain amount of conscious or unconscious copying by the various artists.