A rare prestige album of Napoleon Bonaparte will soon be auctioned in Brussels.
The starting bid for this book, which shows Napoleon’s imperial coronation, is set at €4,000, announced Brussels auction house Arenberg Auctions on Friday.
Commissioned in 1806 by Napoleon, the book meticulously narrates and illustrates the ceremony of his self-coronation as emperor on 2 December 1804 at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, a day after his swift marriage to Joséphine de Beauharnais.
"This book can be compared to today’s Instagram posts. Napoleon aimed to cement his imperial dignity and secure his place in history under the spotlight. By browsing the many illustrations in his ‘prestige album’, you practically feel like you were there," notes Henri Godts, an expert at Arenberg Auctions.
The auction house further describes the book as additional proof of Napoleon’s grandiose ideas, featuring a complete list of civil, ecclesiastical, and military guests and detailed illustrations of the ceremony from the arrival at the cathedral to the anointing and self-coronation, according to their press release.
The book, adorned with gold decorations, measures 66 by 47 cm and includes 40 highly detailed engravings based on drawings by various artists, according to Arenberg.
With a reddish-brown leather cover, the “glorification book” is richly decorated with gold embellishments featuring the imperial coat of arms, the monogram “N”, and the bee, a symbol of Napoleon, Godts describes. He also observes, "According to bibliographer Vinet, this book was not in circulation at the fall of the Empire and was seized, but copies were intended for later distribution."
The album will go under the hammer on the 11 and 12 of October, starting at €4,000.
Other items up for auction include one of the oldest maps of the Netherlands from 1540 and a vast collection from the avant-garde Cobra movement.
