At Christies
recently the Stewart Shaw collection of Napoleonic memorabilia went under the
hammer on the bicentenary of Waterloo. Among many items from a lock of the hair
of his favourite horse “Marengo” and one of his bicorn hats with a bullet hole to
a portrait, there is a bottle of Sherry dated approximately 1810.
It is in an
unopened hand-blown bottle bearing Napoleon’s initial surrounded by victor’s
laurels and was found in a wicker basket in the Emperor’s carriage after he
fled the battle on horseback. It is ullaged to eight inches from the cork but
was catalogued with an estimate of £10-20,000, making the price it fetched one
of the highest ever for a bottle of wine.
