BNPS.co.uk (01202 558833)
Pic: Christies/BNPS

Sir Michael Shaw Stewart collected Napoleon's hat, some hair from the mane of his horse Marengo, his personal map of France and a playing card inscribed in Napoleon's hand.

A black felt hat bought for just £2 is now set to sell for £500,000 - because it belonged to notorious French dictator Napoleon Bonaparte.

The iconic bicorne hat, Napoleon's trademark piece of clothing, is the star of a £1.1 million sale of artefacts relating to him that have emerged for sale 200 years after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.

It was snapped up in 1814 by British aristocrat Sir Michael Shaw Stewart who was making the most of a rare time of peace in Europe to travel with his brother Jack.

A portrait of the emperor gifted to Sir Michael by Napoleon's mother could fetch £600,000.

The artefacts are being sold for the first time ever at London auction house Christie's by the Shaw Stewart family.