138 - Pair of flintlock pistols, general officer’s model, 1st Vendémiaire, Year XII:

Pair of flintlock pistols, general officer’s model, 1st Vendémiaire, Year XII: Octagonal barrels, slightly flared, blued, stamped with thunderbolts on a gold background on the upper sides, an eagle in an oval, and the inscription: “BOUTET”; on the left side panels: “N B” within a rectangle and “N B” intertwined within an octagon; on the right side panels: “B C” within a rectangle and “N B” intertwined within an octagon; thunderheads and muzzles adorned with a gold fillet; silver guidons; platinum sight holes; length 21.7 cm, caliber 17.5 mm, hair-striped; left sides numbered: “240”. Flat-bodied plates, signed: “Boutet à Versailles”; hammers with a spur; volute-shaped basins, plated on the inside of the plate. Iron fittings, cutwork; oval silver caps, chiseled with a head of Medusa in high relief, one hallmarked with the 1st rooster, 1798/1809, 1st fineness standard for the province, guaranteed for the same period, numbered: “88” for the Lower Seine, Rouen, silversmith Boutet: “N B” in a diamond with a small pistol in the center. Finely checkered walnut stocks; fruitwood grip panels, brass end caps. Total length 37 cm. (Barrels re-blued). Early Empire period. Good to very good condition. BOUTET Nicolas Noël, born in 1761, died in 1833, renowned director of the Versailles armory from Year II to 1818; he worked primarily on award weapons, ceremonial weapons, and luxury weapons, both bladed and firearms; these achieved worldwide renown for their quality of craftsmanship and the originality of their designs. He had a warehouse for the manufactory in Paris, located at 1236 Rue de la Loi (Rue de Richelieu) in Year XI, and later at 87 Rue de Richelieu in 1807; he is recorded, as a private gunsmith, in 1823 at 23 Rue des Filles Saint-Thomas, where he worked until 1831. He had a son, Pierre Nicolas, born in 1786 and died in 1816, which explains the occasional inscription: “BOUTET and Son.”