Military History

NAPOLÉON’S SWORD, PISTOLS FETCH NEARLY $2.9 MILLION

apoléon Bonaparte’s garniture—a cased set of five engraved, relief-carved firearms and a gilt dress]. The gift was in gratitude for the general’s successful Italian campaign. Bonaparte wore the sword during the 1799 coup that swept him into power. On becoming emperor, he presented the garniture to Jean-Andoche Junot, Duke of Abrantes, a favorite general married to a dear friend of the Bonapartes. Junot’s 1813 death compelled his indebted widow to sell the cased set of arms. Napoléon’s own fortunes soon took a downturn, and he died in British captivity on St. Helena Island in 1821.

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