Olympia Auctions’ London Sale Brings Together Three Legends of Military History

By Annie Davidson Watson | June 18, 2026

Napoleon’s hair, Lawrence of Arabia’s riding crop, and a ceremonial sabre signed by Cartier Paris walk into an auction house… It sounds like the setup for a joke, but it’s actually the highlight reel of Olympia Auctions’ Fine Antique Arms, Armour & Militaria sale on June 24 in London.

The Napoleon lot is a cased lock of hair in a silver box dated 1912, estimated at £2,000 to £3,000 ($2,700 to $4,000). The box lid carries an engraved inscription tracing the hair’s journey from one George Edgecumbe through several hands to its 1912 encasement. Sale experts Thomas Del Mar and David Williams connect the Edgecumbe reference to the 1st Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, a senior naval officer whose son lived on the family’s Cornwall estate during the period Napoleon was held aboard HMS Bellerophon in Plymouth Sound in 1815—a plausible if not definitive link. A glass tumbler believed taken from Napoleon’s carriage at Waterloo, cut with a crowned N, carries the same estimate.

napoleon glass — *Glass tumbler believed to have been from Napoleon’s carriage, estimate £2,000-£3,000*

Four items reputedly belonging to T.E. Lawrence—keffiyeh tassels, a spur, a riding crop, and an RAF swagger stick—are estimated at £1,000–£1,500. Lawrence reportedly gave them to John H. Harvey, an architectural historian and the vendor’s father.

The financial standout is a 1920s presentation sabre with a hilt signed Cartier Paris, estimated at £15,000 to £20,000, almost certainly made for Agha Petros Elloff, commander of the Assiro-Khapaesky Battalion and a leading figure in the Assyrian independence movement. Del Mar and Williams call it an exceptionally rare example of a bespoke ceremonial weapon from a luxury jeweler; surviving Cartier swords from the interwar period are scarce, and those linked to named historical figures rarer still.

The sale takes place June 24 at Olympia Auctions, 25 Blythe Road, London W14.

(Photos courtesy of Olympia Auctions)

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