10/04/2026
You never know what you could find.
In December 2017, a collector bought what looked like an old costume hat at a Berlin auction.
Inside, they found an inscription: "ORIGINAL Napoleon I." Then they found hair. DNA testing confirmed: it was Napoleon's actual battlefield hat.
The hat sat unremarkably among other lots at a small auction house in BerlinâBerliner Auktionhaus, Sale 110, Lot 2052. It was listed as a 19th-century hat, nothing special, attributed to Leopold Verch, a German theatrical costume designer from the early 20th century.
A military collector, browsing for period pieces, purchased it as a curiosity. The price wasn't astronomical. The provenance wasn't impressive. It was just an interesting old hatâblack beaver felt, bicorne style, the kind worn by men in the Napoleonic era.
But when the collector examined it more closely at home, something caught their attention.
Inside the hat, stamped in the lining, were marks for Leopold Verch, Charlottenburg, Berlin. Verch had been a leading theatrical costumier and official supplier to the Royal Prussian court, collecting authentic historical clothing across Europe to use as models for his stage costumes.
But there was something else. Written in red ink inside the bicorne were words that made the collector's heart race:
"ORIGINAL Napoleon I"
The collector stared at those words. Could this actually be...?
Most people would have dismissed it as wishful thinking or a theatrical prop labeled for dramatic effect. But this collector decided to investigate.
The hat's construction was remarkable. Black beaver feltâthe exact material used for Napoleon's hats. The dimensions matched historical records: circumference 59cm, width 47.5cm, height 24.5cm. The bicorne style, with its distinctive two-pointed shape.
And there were wear patterns. Thread fragments running around the interior brim suggested a leather sweatband had once been attachedâexactly like the authenticated Napoleon hats in museums.
The collector contacted the Musée de l'Armée at Les Invalides in Paris, home to six authenticated Napoleon bicornes. Could they examine this hat?
The museum confirmed: the hat matched the precise inner circumference dimensions of hats made by Poupart & Cie, the Parisian company that produced Napoleon's hats. The age was rightâearly 19th century. The construction was identical.
But the real breakthrough came when researchers examined the interior more carefully.
They found hair. Several strands embedded in the lining.
Hair that could contain DNA.
The samples were sent to Professor GĂ©rard Lucotte, a molecular geneticist who had been the first scientist to identify Napoleon Bonaparte's DNA markers a decade earlier. Using spectroscopy and genetic analysis, Lucotte could compare the hair from the hat with known Napoleon genetic material.
The results came back.
The DNA matched.
Bonaparte's genetic markers were present not just in the hair strands, but in samples taken randomly from inside the hatâproving this bicorne had been "well worn" by the Emperor himself.
"This is a very exciting and significant discovery," said Simon Cottle, Bonhams Head of Sale. "The bicorne can be dated to the early 19th century, the material is beaver felt exactly as in the Poupart hats andâcruciallyâthe DNA research has established beyond all reasonable doubt that this was indeed the hat of the Emperor Napoleon."
The collector had stumbled upon one of history's most iconic artifacts.
Napoleon Bonaparte wore bicorne hats constantly throughout his 15-year reign as Emperor of France (1804-1814/1815). While the bicorne was common military headwear in that era, Napoleon wore his distinctivelyâsideways, with the points parallel to his shoulders rather than front-to-back.
This style, known as "en bataille" (in battle), made him instantly recognizable on the battlefield. His soldiers could spot their emperor from a distance, even in the chaos of combat.
"On the field of battle, his hat is worth forty thousand men!" the Duke of Wellington reportedly remarked.
Napoleon kept his hats deliberately simpleâno ostrich feathers, no gold lacework, no ornamentation like those worn by his generals. Just stark black beaver felt with a silk lining. A political statement: the citizen-emperor, not a pompous aristocrat.
During his reign, the Parisian hatmaker Poupart & Cie produced approximately 120 bicornes for Napoleon. He constantly maintained about 12 operational hats, each lasting roughly 3 years, with several created each year.
Experts believe this particular hatâbased on its construction and the "hat of winter military campaigns" designationâwas worn during the battles of Jena and Auerstadt in October 1806, when Napoleon crushed the Prussian army.
After Napoleon's defeat and exile, his hats scattered across Europe. Only 20-30 of the original 120 are believed to survive today. Most are in museums or passed down through noble French families.
This hat somehow made its way to Leopold Verch, the German costume designer, who acquired historical clothing during his travels to use as reference for theatrical productions. It sat in his collection, then passed through unknown hands until that December 2017 auction in Berlin.
The collector who purchased it for a modest sum now owned the only Napoleon hat confirmed by DNA testing to have been worn by the Emperor.
In October 2021, the hat went to auction at Bonhams in London as part of "Napoleon Bonaparte: The British Sale."
The estimate: ÂŁ100,000-150,000 ($138,000-206,000).
But Napoleon's hats command extraordinary prices. In 2014, one sold for âŹ1.9 million. In September 2021, another fetched âŹ1.2 million ($1.4 million) at Sotheby's.
The DNA-confirmed hatâthe first and only one with verified genetic evidence of Napoleon's wearâwas expected to set records.
The hat came with copies of Professor Lucotte's research in French and English, along with the hair samples on which the conclusions were based.
For historians and collectors, this wasn't just a hat. It was a tangible connection to one of history's most influential figuresâa man who reshaped Europe, crowned himself Emperor, conquered nations, and ultimately died in exile on St. Helena in 1821.
The hat he wore at Jena and Auerstadt had witnessed his greatest triumphs. It had been on his head as he commanded armies, made strategic decisions, and changed the course of history.
And for over two centuries, it had been hiding in plain sightâfirst in Verch's costume collection, then at a small Berlin auction house, waiting for someone to notice the red ink inscription inside.
What began as a routine purchase by a curious collector ended with the rediscovery of a priceless historical artifact, authenticated by the very DNA of the man who wore it.
The story proves something collectors know but often forget: history doesn't always announce itself with fanfare. Sometimes it sits quietly in an auction lot, waiting for someone to look closer, ask questions, and refuse to accept the obvious explanation.
Sometimes the most extraordinary discoveries are made by people who buy something ordinary and wonder: "What if this is more than it seems?"
In December 2017, a collector bought an old hat at a Berlin auction.
Inside were the words "ORIGINAL Napoleon I" and several strands of hair.
DNA testing confirmed what seemed impossible: Napoleon Bonaparte's battlefield bicorne, worn at Jena and Auerstadt in 1806, authenticated by the Emperor's own genetic material.
History had been hiding in a costume designer's collection for over a century, waiting to be found.
