For those of you who were wondering whatever happened to Napoleon Bonaparte’s penis, a New York Times report has the answer. Not to worry, Napoleon’s private parts are in New Jersey.

According to one report, a late collector of oddities and Columbia University professor named Professor John Lattimer retained the French Emperor’s genitalia along with some other somewhat strange collectibles and body parts for his private collection. Legend has it that Napoleon’s penis was severed by a clergy member who gave him last rites and the body part was traded extensively since the early 1800s. Over the years, the famous private parts were bought and sold by collectors and were even exhibited in New York City. With an interesting background, an exhibition record, and inclusion in some well-known private American collections, Napoleon’s body parts enjoyed a well-documented history.

There is a connection to the city of Brotherly Love or Philadelphia in the story of Napoleon’s body parts. That’s right, this part of Napoleon’s body was once owned by the Philadelphia bookseller and well-known collector A. S. W. Rosenbach, of the Rosenbach museum fame, who eagerly put them on exhibition.

It is surprising, but Professor John Lattimer and A. S. W. Rosenbach weren’t the only collectors with an interest in antique body parts of famous and not-so-famous figures. In fact, Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, interestingly enough, was known for her books as well as her unusual decision to keep her husband’s dried heart in a writing desk drawer.

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Napoleonic Provenance

The report on the collection of this very personal piece of Napoleonic property made me re-consider an issue that comes up frequently in my own work as an appraiser, and that is the issue of provenance.

I’ve discussed provenance in the past and commented on how it impacts value and sparks great interest in the antiques and vintage marketplace. Provenance, from the French “to prove it”, is a concept regarding the authenticity and documented history or lineage of an object, work of art, collectible or antique. Provenance helps give credence to an object’s lineage and impacts value and interest in the market. It could be said that provenance is like an object’s resume. Provenance highlights how an aging object has traveled from one collector to another and documents its prominence in the public eye including its appearance in museum exhibitions, famed collections, scholarly publications, and the like.

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Celebrity Collectibles

The early decades of the 19th Century was a time when collectors were attracted by the stuff of celebrities, monarchs, and military figures. Many exhibitions were organized around the objects belonging to well-known figureheads, personalities, etc. These items regularly went on tour as major exhibits and sparked widespread popular interest near and far.

Long ago, people traveled to see the body parts or the possessions of historical figures just as we do today. Like the medieval pilgrims who traveled to Europe’s many pilgrimage churches and cathedrals to pray among the relics of the Christian saints, today, we regularly rush to museums to see exhibitions that offer a glimpse of the past. We are encouraged by the prospect of taking in an exhibit of such secular objects as the Royal Crown Jewels of Great Britain or the vast and diverse objects exhumed from the ancient tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs like that of King Tut. For my two cents, I think we should continue to do just that and visit these objects in museums or collect these objects for our own wonder chambers and enjoy them as conversation pieces. It is one of the best ways to retain history and learn more about how those who came before us lived.

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Hi-Style Hair

Today’s collectors are not much different from our ancestors from the ancient, medieval, or Victorian periods. People then and now enjoy a healthy interest in collecting anything associated with a celebrity including famous persons’ body parts. Probably the most common body collectible of the 1800s was human hair. The Victorians retained free flowing strands or woven hair locks of both the famous and the familiar and encased the hair in gold jeweled lockets or squirreled the hair away in glass jars. It makes some 21st Century celebrity collectibles enthusiasts ponder the question, how much is Brittany Spears’ hair worth? Could we put a value on George Clooney’s fingernail? Are Kim Kardashian’s eyelashes worth a listing on eBay? It’s quite possible that a spa or salon owner where a pop icon or movie star got a haircut and a manicure could be sitting on a fortune in their trash bin.

For those of you who don’t have Vincent Van Gogh’s ear or Tom Thumb’s thumb proudly displayed in your china or curio cabinet, remember celebrity status is not the only key to value. No matter the antique or collectible object, it is provenance that remains one of the keys to establishing true value in the market.

Dr. Lori Verderame is the award-winning Ph.D. Antiques Appraiser on History channel’s #1 show, The Curse of Oak Island. Visit www.DrLoriV.com and www.YouTube.com/DrLoriV or call (888) 431-1010.

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