Suitcase treasures

New Zealand descendants of a British officer stationed on St Helena, from 1815 to 1821, have sold a number of his collection of Napoleon Bonaparte mementoes at an auction in Auckland, including a lock of the former French Emperor’s hair, for $19,. Bidders vied for about 4 items of Napoleon memorabilia that sold for almost $1,. Officer Denzil Ibbetson served during Napoleon’s imprisonment on the remote island, a British colony, and his collection was brought to New Zealand in 1864 by his son and remained in the family, stored in a suitcase, until the sale. Managing director of the Art+Object auction house, Hamish Coney, said it was a unique and important collection. “Denzil Ibbetson was an acute recorder of life on the island and was in a unique position to access Napoleon in his final years,” Coney said. He said that international interest in the items, which had never been seen in public before, was so intense that “for the first time ever” for a New Zealand auction, the collection had made the front page of the Antiques Trade Gazette – what he described as “the European Bible” for collectors.