Null LEPAGE, EMPEROR'S HARQUEBUSIER
Officer's pistol case in light walnut
sheat…

Description

LEPAGE, EMPEROR'S HARQUEBUSIER Officer's pistol case in light walnut sheathed in green and red morocco, decorated with gold on the iron, with one compartment. It contains : A rare pair of percussion pistols with mercury fulminate pellets. Damascus rifled barrels, signed in gold "LEPAGE à PARIS ARQer DE L'EMPEREUR". Lock plates signed in a gold oval "LE PAGE" within a laurel wreath and flat-bodied hammers engraved with foliate scrolls. Adjustable screw triggers. Finger rests engraved with urns and line-decorated. Iron caps engraved with a laurel wreath, rimmed with ebony carved with foliage. Squared crossbars (one crack in the squaring) and short shafts in fine marbled walnut. Gun length: 36.5 cm With accessories: mallet, oiler, measuring cup, bullet mold, powder flask, screwdriver, fulminate capsule dispenser, cleaning rod, and tamping rod. With key. Dated and numbered in the locks, under the barrels and on the breech plugs "A 1812" and "N°64". Our set is of particularly early manufacture. Good condition (minor wear to the case). First Empire period (1812). Historical background: The invention of Scottish clergyman Alexander John FORSYTH (1768-1843), fed up with the slowness of flintlock shotguns on his hunts, was to revolutionize the world of firearms. By using the detonating properties of mercury fulminate (known to chemists since the 17th century) in place of black powder and creating a complex system of mercury fulminate pill reservoirs which, combined with a shutter hammer, enabled detonation to be transmitted into the barrel light, around 1808. At the same time, Jean Le Page, Emperor Napoleon I's harquebusier, also developed a similar lock using the properties of mercury fulminate from 1810 onwards, and began producing boxed pistols (like ours) and rifles. The system was quickly copied in Europe (mainly for hunting guns, as it was faster but less robust than flintlock), but only for a short time, until 1820.

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LEPAGE, EMPEROR'S HARQUEBUSIER Officer's pistol case in light walnut sheathed in green and red morocco, decorated with gold on the iron, with one compartment. It contains : A rare pair of percussion pistols with mercury fulminate pellets. Damascus rifled barrels, signed in gold "LEPAGE à PARIS ARQer DE L'EMPEREUR". Lock plates signed in a gold oval "LE PAGE" within a laurel wreath and flat-bodied hammers engraved with foliate scrolls. Adjustable screw triggers. Finger rests engraved with urns and line-decorated. Iron caps engraved with a laurel wreath, rimmed with ebony carved with foliage. Squared crossbars (one crack in the squaring) and short shafts in fine marbled walnut. Gun length: 36.5 cm With accessories: mallet, oiler, measuring cup, bullet mold, powder flask, screwdriver, fulminate capsule dispenser, cleaning rod, and tamping rod. With key. Dated and numbered in the locks, under the barrels and on the breech plugs "A 1812" and "N°64". Our set is of particularly early manufacture. Good condition (minor wear to the case). First Empire period (1812). Historical background: The invention of Scottish clergyman Alexander John FORSYTH (1768-1843), fed up with the slowness of flintlock shotguns on his hunts, was to revolutionize the world of firearms. By using the detonating properties of mercury fulminate (known to chemists since the 17th century) in place of black powder and creating a complex system of mercury fulminate pill reservoirs which, combined with a shutter hammer, enabled detonation to be transmitted into the barrel light, around 1808. At the same time, Jean Le Page, Emperor Napoleon I's harquebusier, also developed a similar lock using the properties of mercury fulminate from 1810 onwards, and began producing boxed pistols (like ours) and rifles. The system was quickly copied in Europe (mainly for hunting guns, as it was faster but less robust than flintlock), but only for a short time, until 1820.

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This item is offered in collaboration with the Rossini study. Exceptional box set of two pistols made by Gosset once owned by Emperor Napoleon I and given by him to to General Armand de Caulaincourt, Duc de Vicence, on the night of April 12-13, 1814. Rectangular case, covered with burr-walnut veneer, enriched at the edge with an ebony baguette, The inside of the lid is sheathed in green velvet, richly embroidered around the edges with wide gold embroidery featuring a series of oak leaves and bees in the corners, surrounding a central "N" under a laurel wreath bearing nine stars, embroidered in a series of gold threads. Engraved silver lock plate: "Boite de pistolets donnée à Fontainebleau à Monsieur le Duc de Vicence par l'Empereur Napoléon en 1814". Cloverleaf lock with brass escutcheon. All screws on the lock plate and hinges are chased. The pistols and accessories are recessed and presented in a burr-walnut veneer trimmed with green velvet on the bottoms and embellished, in the corners, with two compartments with urn-shaped knob lids. It contains a pair of pistols by GOSSET, one short-barreled, the other long-barreled. Rich damascus barrels, decorated in gold. Richly engraved breech tails, locks and hammers. Richly carved walnut mounts decorated with carved ebony motifs. The stock backs bear blue-enameled gold thumb pieces with the Emperor Napoleon I's numeral. The short-barrel model features a gold medallion on the front of the barrel, featuring the profile of Emperor Napoleon I and the Imperial Eagle. Complete with accessories in very good original condition. Box dimensions: 18 x 32 x Ht. 8 cm. First Empire period (circa 1810-1812) The plating on the lid of the box is lifted and cracked, small lack of plating on an inner edge, repair of the plating on the back of the box. Key missing. Full description in the July 7 sale catalog. Provenance : -Emperor Napoleon I. Given on the night of April 12-13, 1814, to General Armand de Caulaincourt. -It has remained in his family ever since. History: The history of these pistols is rooted in the dark hours of the end of the Empire and the Emperor's first abdication: they are doubly linked to Napoleon I's suicide attempt at Fontainebleau, on the night of April 12-13, 1814. Discover the full story in the July 7 sale catalog. The Duke of Vicenza religiously preserved these relics until his death in 1827. In his will, deposited with Me Poignant, notary in Paris, on February 20, 1827, Caulaincourt bequeathed to his eldest son Adrien: "1°- the cameo on onyx representing Emperor Napoleon on one side and an eagle on the other. 2°- the Emperors' saber worn by Emperor Napoleon 3°- this sovereign's fine pistols". He added: "I attach great value to these objects because they were given to me by him in 1814 at Fontainebleau when I left him, as a memento of the loyalty and attachment I had always shown him". Exhibitions: - Deux siècles de gloire militaire, 1610-1814 : exposition organisée avec le concours de la Sabretache", April-June 1935, Musée des arts décoratifs, Pavillon de Marsan. n°879. Pair of pistols belonging to the Emperor and given by him to General de Caulaincourt, Duc de Vicence, at Fontainebleau in 1814. By Boutet (note: there is an error in the name of the harquebusier). Our kit is clearly visible in the central display case in period photographs (Archives de la Sabretache), under the "sabre des Empereurs", also located at that time in the descendants of General de Caulaincourt. Related works: - "Sabre des Empereurs" offered by Napoleon to the grand-écuyer Caulaincourt on the morning of April 13, 1814 in Fontainebleau. From the same provenance as our box of pistols, in Caulaincourt's descendants, the saber, its belt and its case joined the Château de Fontainebleau collections in 1996, via a dation. -A pair of Emperor Napoleon I pistols, by Nicolas Noël Boutet, in the collections of the Musée du Louvre, assigned to the Musée de l'Armée (Inv. Ms 88). - Box of two pairs of pistols, once owned by Napoleon I by Nicolas Noël-Boutet, Musée de l'Armée collections (Inv. Ca 19) Biographies : Louis Marin GOSSET Active from the early 19th century, he worked at the Manufacture de Versailles, where he is said to have been assistant to Nicolas Noël Boutet, artistic director.

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