Letter from Napoleon’s paroled brother sells for £500 at Shrewsbury auction

A piece of Anglo French history, with links to Shropshire and Worcestershire and dating to the time of Napoleon Bonaparte, has sold for £500 at an auction in Shrewsbury on Wednesday.

Halls Fine Art sold the letter written by Napoleon’s brother, Lucien Bonaparte (1775-1840) in the company’s £100,000 books, coins and stamps auction on Wednesday. The buyer lives in Worcestershire.

Andy Neal, Halls Fine Art’s stamps specialist, described the letter from Lucien, first Prince of Canino and Musignano, as “of postal, historical and literary importance.” It had been professionally conserved and was sold with a translation of the original French, various notes and pictures.

Lucien was a French politician and diplomat of the French Revolution who served as Minister of the Interior from 1799 to 1800 and president of the Council of Five Hundred in 1799, participating in the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire that brought Napoleon to power in France.

As Lucien’s relationship with Napoleon had cooled by 1810, he set sail with his family from Italy to start a new life in the USA. However, as their ship sheltered in Sardinia from storms, he was captured and brought to Britain where he became a paroled prisoner.

He spent time at Dinham near Ludlow, Lord Powis’ house and then purchased Thorngrove, Grimley near Worcester. As part of his parole, Lucien and his family were restricted to a 10 mile radius and all his mail was inspected by Lieutenant Colonel Francis Leighton of Shrewsbury, a retired army officer, before being posted.

Under Leighton’s orders, Worcester postmaster would only accept mail that carried his “secret mark” to denote it had been inspected.

The auctioned letter, which had part of Lucien’s LB seal remaining, was written at Thorngrove and posted in Shrewsbury on November 25, 1813 to Cambridge.

“There was no trace of any ‘secret mark’, so perhaps it was smuggled to Shrewsbury to avoid censorship,” said Mr Neal. “The letter was to Francis Hodgson, Fellow at Kings College, Cambridge and a friend of Byron.

“Hodgson had translated the poetry of Juvenal into English and Lucien was seeking his help to translate his own epic poem ‘Charlemagne’ (The Church delivered) into English.

“The request obviously bore fruit as Lucien’s epic 24 book poem was translated by Hodgson, working with Samuel Butler and a copy was presented to King George IV whilst Prince Regent in 1815.”

Leading prices in the stamps section were £800 each for an excellent collection of India Postal History in three albums, a collection of Great Britain stamps 1971-2020 and a massive accumulation of world stamps. Another Great Britain collection, covering 1840 to circa 2018, sold for £700.