Gossip in the First Decade of Victoria's ReignAshton, John
History
Gossip in the First Decade of Victoria's Reign
Ashton, John
Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
On 9 June, the new street connecting Holborn with Oxford Street, and now
called New Oxford Street, was thrown open for carriages.
Messrs. Christie and Manson sold, at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, on 23
June, the first portion of the “Napoleon Museum,” collected by Mrs.
Sainsbury, and which had long been on exhibition. The prices fetched
were ridiculously low, as the following examples will show. Among the
bronzes, an infantine bust of the King of Rome, formerly in the
possession of Josephine, at Malmaison, cost 20 guineas, sold for £1 10s.
A drawing in sepia, by Debret, of Napoleon visiting the wounded on the
field, after the battle of Eylau, £5 5s. The pictures illustrative of
the principal events in the life of Napoleon, were almost given away; the
highest price obtained, being £12 for one by the great French painter
David, of Napoleon, with the crown raised in both his hands, to place on
the head of Josephine, at the Coronation in Notre Dame. Twenty beautiful
enamels by Lienard, of Napoleon, Ney, Berthier, Junot, Joseph, Lucien,
Louis and Jerome Bonaparte, Murat, Caroline, the youngest sister of
Napoleon, Cardinal Fesch, Marie Louise, etc., fetched but £76, and, on
the other days’ sales, the lots went for far under their value.
My readers may possibly remember how, on 8 Dec., 1900, a number of Nelson
relics in the Painted Hall, at Greenwich Hospital, were stolen, during
the night, by a burglar, who escaped; and may like to know the story of
Nelson’s coat. The _Times_ of 9 July, copies the following from the
_Spectator_:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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