This musket ball embedded in a piece of wall was fired at the Battle of Waterloo. It is estimated at £180-200 at Lockdales on July 30.
Catalogued as "a partial brick with embedded musket ball, label underneath from Waterloo museum, second label Found in the grounds of Hougoumont farm", this lot comes for sale at Lockdales (19.5% buyer's premium) in Ipswich on July 30.
The estimate of £180-200 is already enticing potential buyers: pre-auction bidding on the wall and musket ball on thesaleroom.com had risen to £500 at the time of writing, more than a week before the sale.
According to the Waterloo Tourisme website (waterloo-tourisme.com), "Hougoumont Farm...is generally accepted as the last authentic witness to the Battle of Waterloo.
"Hougoumont Farm is unquestionably the most emblematic and the best preserved in terms of how it looked in the aftermath of the Battle. It witnessed fierce fighting between the French and the English. The English front, some 3.5km long from Hougoumont to La Papelotte, withstood the French offensive during the day on 18 June 1815. In fact the Duke of Wellington used to say that 'the success of the battle turned upon the closing of the gates at Hougoumont'.
"After the battle, most of the buildings at Hougoumont lay in smoke and ruins. The walls of the few surviving buildings were pockmarked by shells and bullets. The trees were in a dreadful state, with their mangled trunks and their branches and leaves torn off. The castle, which was an utter wreck, was obviously uninhabitable. All that remains of the castle today are its foundations."
If you happen to find yourself south of Brussels over the summer, the farm museum can be visited between 10am and 7pm during July and August.
