Original article (in Serbian) was published on 8/7/2024; Author: Ivan Subotić
Is there a connection between Napoleon Bonaparte, the cognac glass and a chandelier? If you ask the author of Sputnik’s online show “Masa i…” Masa Radovic – this connection exists. In a short clip posted at the end of June on the web portal Sputnik, but also on TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, Sputnik’s journalist explains how Napoleon Bonaparte designed the cognac glass. However, FakeNews Tragac, in a conversation with historians whose field of interest is Napoleon Bonaparte, concluded that this claim has no basis in real facts.
Napoleon, chandeliers and drinking cognac
Along with the claim that Napoleon designed the model of the cognac glass, Sputnik’s journalist also published a strange story. This story begins with an already proven untrue statement – “Napoleon is known to have been short”. No, Napoleon was not short, and Tragac already wrote about this myth in its section called Mythopedia. British propagandists who depicted him in cartoons during the wars between Britain and France are primarily responsible for the myth that Napoleon was short.
But let’s get back to our story. According to Masa Radovic, “the famous statesman was very annoyed that during the conversation with him, none of the guests noticed his golden chandeliers” (because apparently Napoleon was short, and the chandeliers were hung high on the ceilings of the villa where he lived). “He decided to come up with a glass for cognac, so everyone would, at the same time, lift their heads up high to drink from the glass”, says Radovic.
It is a pot-bellied glass with a low base. “In addition to the obligatory look at Napoleon’s chandeliers, the pot-bellied shape of the glass kept the evaporation at the narrowed top and thus gave the drink an extra touch”, concludes the journalist from Sputnik. However, the story about Napoleon, chandeliers and a pot-bellied glass is hardly true. There are two types of modern glasses of this shape and low stand that could be relevant to this story. The first is a glass for brandy, the so-called snifter, and the second is a glass for beer, the so-called tulip glass. Although it is not entirely clear who designed the look of these glasses, a similar shape existed even in the time of the ancient Romans (1, 2).
Historians’ response
Given that we were unable to determine who and when exactly designed the cognac glass, we tried to find out if Napoleon I Bonaparte really had anything to do with this glass. We spoke to the editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Napoleonica published by the French Napoleon Foundation, historian Peter Hicks. He told us that he had not heard of this story, nor that he had any information about it. “It is possible that Napoleon I visited the warehouse of
Courvoisier (cognac producer) in 1809 or 1811. But that’s all. Napoleon did not like strong drinks, he only drank wine mixed with water”, Hicks explained and added that the drinking of strong drinks is only mentioned in Napoleon’s testament, but even there it is not cognac, but fruit brandies, the so-called “water of life”.
We also spoke with the Australian historian Filip Dwyer, the author of three biographical books about Napoleon I. He also does not think that the story about Napoleon, the cognac glass and the chandeliers is true. “Sounds like one of those dubious stories that aren’t true. The cognac glass preceded Napoleon by several centuries, as far as I know”, says Dwyer and repeats that the statements about Napoleon’s height are also false and that he was the same height as the then British captain Horace Nelson.
Where does the anecdote about Napoleon and the cognac glass come from?
By searching for keywords from the story in English and French, we did not get results to confirm the story. In Serbian, almost the same statements, which in some moments even coincide with the sentences from the video, appear in two places. At the end of last year, they were published on the web portal N, which is under the auspices of Novosti, and we can also find them on the anonymous portal web Istorija konjaka, which makes the whole story in a few illiterate sentences. It is not clear who is the author of this content, but you can find a link to the website of the famous cognac producer Remi Martin. On the website of this company, you can find which glass is the best to drink cognac from, but not that Napoleon invented it.
