The Ornate Sword That Napoleon Commissioned During His Rise to Power Is Heading to Auction Prior to his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, the French ruler gave the saber to one of his most trusted generals, whose family kept it for generations Both the sword and the sheath are made from some of the most valuable materials from Napoleon's era. Giquello “Do you know what fills me most with wonder?” Napoleon once reportedly asked the Marquis de Fontanes. “The powerlessness of force to establish anything. There are only two powers in the world: the sword and the mind. In the end, the sword is always conquered by the mind.” Whether Napoleon ever really spoke these words—quoted in Albert Camus’ essay “The Almond-Trees”—is unknown. But swords were undoubtedly a potent symbol for the French ruler. The sword is decorated with a golden dog wearing an Egyptian headdress. Giquello For Napoleon, then France’s first consul, 1802 was a critical year. In March, he made temporary peace with Britain and Spain in the Treaty of Amiens. At home, he used the interlude to consolidate his control. A national referendum established him “first consul for life,” with more than 99 percent of Frenchmen supposedly voting in his favor. With this massive (if dubious) mandate, Napoleon instituted a new constitution that allowed him to appoint his successor and set the table for his coronation as emperor two years later. During this banner year, Napoleon commissioned an ornate sword from Nicolas-Noël Boutet, the master armorer at the state armory in Versailles. He kept the sword by his side until 1815, when he gave it to his ally, Emmanuel de Grouchy, ahead of the fateful Battle of Waterloo. Once the sword was out of his possession, Napoleon spent the rest of his life in exile on the remote island of St. Helena. The sword remained in the Grouchy family for generations, a gilded reminder of the fleeting power of the First French Empire. On May 22, it will be sold at a highly anticipated auction at Hôtel Drouot in Paris, where it’s expected to fetch between roughly $800,000 and $1.1 million. “The saber is an important symbol in the collective imagination, and Napoleon placed great importance on symbols,” Alexandre Giquello, president of the Drouot auction house, tells Reuters. From hilt to blade, the sword is adorned with rich symbolism. “At the time, they used the widest range of imagery possible,” Giquello explains. “You have stylized animals, you have a palm leaf motif, the whole range of ancient and classical references, Roman and Greek.” The sword is decorated with a golden dog’s head dressed in an Egyptian headpiece and clutching a chain in its mouth. Elsewhere on the sword is the head of Medusa, the Nemean lion defeated by Hercules, and Mars, the Roman god of war. "N. BONAPARTE" is inscribed on the sword's now-blunt blade. Giquello Giquello describes Napoleon’s sword as “very high quality, the best of the best of his time.” The saber is in good condition, although the blade is slightly blunted and the original mother-of-pearl plates are re-glued, per the auction house. “N. BONAPARTE” and “PMIER CONSUL” are inscribed on either side of the blade. Giving the sword to Grouchy was a “very important act of thanks” from Napoleon to the last man he had appointed to the vaunted position of marshal of the empire, according to Giquello. Only one other version of this rare sword exists. Also commissioned by Napoleon, it is kept in the collections of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, per Agence France-Presse. In recent years, Napoleon memorabilia has fetched large sums at auction. In 2023, one of the emperor’s iconic bicorne hats sold for $2.1 million. Last year, a pair of Napoleon’s ornately decorated pistols sold for $1.8 million. Another sword, which Napoleon carried into the Battle of Marengo in 1800, went for $6.4 million in 2007, a record price for a weapon sold at auction, according to Artnet’s Richard Whiddington. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.