IMPORTANT RELIQUARY FRAME RELATING TO EMPEROR NAPOLEON I AND EMPRESS JOSÉPHINE It contains : - A lock of Emperor Napoleon I's hair. - A lock of Empress Josephine's hair. Each with the handwritten attestation of Henry BERTRAND, son of the Grand Marshal, with a black wax seal. He had received these relics from his father in his will. These two relics were donated to FEISTHAMEL. - First Empire general officer's regalia on a black cloth background. Attributed to Lieutenant Bonaparte in 1790 by Colonel DELANCE of the Régiment de la Fère. It would appear to be a retroussis pattern from General BERTRAND. - Small branch of cypress given to Festhamel. Made in Paris on 25 December 1840. Signed Baron Paul (DICHEMONY or DELICHEMON?). Gilt frame with palmettes. 30 x 36 cm. A.B.E. (Insolate, the hair has whitened due to exposure to light). Commentary: Note the empty space at the top left of our frame, which contained a shirt of Emperor Napoleon I in St Helena, of the same provenance. Biographies : - Henri Alexandre Arthur Bertrand, born 6 December 1811 in Trieste (Italy), died 22 January 1878 in Paris was a French politician, deputý to the Constituent Assembly of 1848. Son of Empire General Bertrand, who accompanied Napoleon I to St Helena, and son-in-law of Charles-Pierre Michel de Puisard, he was expelled from the École polytechnique in 1832 for his participation in a republican insurrection, before being reinstated́. He graduated as a second lieutenant in artillery in 1833 and took part in the conquest of Algeria under Marshal Clauzel. After the 1848 revolution, he was elected as the Indre representative to the Constituent Assembly, and voted with the Republicans, and sometimes with the Conservatives, but opposed Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte. After not being re-elected in 1849, he rejoined the army, fought in the Crimean War and the siege of Sebastopol, then in the Italian campaign. He rallied to the Empire and continued his career, rising to the rank of brigadier general (1864). - Baron Joachim-François Philibert Julien de Feisthamel (1791-1851). He was a close friend of Grand Marshal Bertrand. He commanded the Paris Municipal Guard in 1830. Provenance : Former Napoleonic collection of the Prince's Palace of Monaco (2nd sale, lot 176) A reliquary frame with strands of hair of the Emperor Napoleon I and the Empress Josephine