A rare scissorwork diorama depicting Napoleon captive on St Helena was among the curios in Sworders' latest Out of the Ordinary sale, the Antiques Trade Gazette reported on October 16. The piece plays on the emperor's final exile with a wry framing — an 'escape plan' — suggesting the diorama imagines the captive scheming his way off the island.

It came from the collection of Tim Wonnacott, the former Sotheby's specialist turned television presenter. Wonnacott's ownership adds a trade-insider provenance to a folk-art object that would otherwise be anonymous, and such named collections tend to sharpen bidding for otherwise modestly valued curiosities.

Scissorwork — intricate cut-paper compositions, often depicting landscapes or figures — flourished as a popular art form in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Dioramas of this kind, layering cut paper to create depth, were a refined parlor craft, and Napoleonic subjects remained popular with British makers long after 1815: part fascination, part patriotic souvenir, part satire of the defeated emperor.

The sale continues a run of strong curiosity results at Sworders, where the Out of the Ordinary format has repeatedly found buyers for offbeat lots. Napoleon's enduring market presence — more than two centuries after Waterloo — remains one of the auction world's more reliable constants, and the diorama's playful premise gives it an edge over the usual run of commemorative prints and medals. Wonnacott, known to a wide television audience, built his collection with a specialist's eye, and the diorama's blend of folk craft and imperial history is exactly the kind of lot that animates the Out of the Ordinary format.