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Lot Essay
Presented to El Libertador General Manuel Belgrano by the city of Buenos Aires at the time of Argentina's declaration of independence from Spain in 1816, later presented to General Juan Manuel de Rosas by Juan Nepomuceno Terrero in 1834.
The smooth-bored barrels (10¾ inches) struck TATHAM & EGG within a gold-lined rectangular cartouches, gold fore-sights and gold-lined touch-holes; gold-inlaid star-bursts, laurel wreaths and panoplies-of-arms surmounted by Phrygian-type caps of liberty decorate the barrels inscribed in gold along their lengths: 1A LA CIUDAD DE BUENOS AYRES AT GENERAL BELGRANO. 2A VENCEDOR EN TUCUMAN Y SALTA. 3A LA LIBERTAD DE LA PATRIA ESTABLECIDA., tangs adorned with panoplies-of-arms in gold; lock-plates with gold inlays of arms, stars and crescent moons, and inscribed with maker's name TATHAM & EGG, set with half-cock push-on safeties, gold-lined rain-proof pans, French cocks and roller-mounted frizzens with gold-inlaid decorative motifs of draperies; walnut full-stocks profusely inlaid with engraved silver decoration depicting a celebration of agricultural wealth of Argentina: grape-bunches on meandering vines, wheat motifs and roses; four engraved silver panels depict trophies-of-arms interspersed in-between, grips inlaid with a two sun-burst motifs of silver engraved with faces after the symbol of Salta; hallmarked gilt-silver escutcheon plates engraved with Argentina's nation symbol surrounded by the words PROVINCIAS UNIDAS DEL RIO DE PLATA; gilt-silver trigger-guards struck with five hallmarks (MB, London, 1814) and decorated with chiseled motifs, butt caps and rear ram rod pipes embellished likewise, ram rods with engraved silver caps; red leather bound powder flask, crystal oil-vessel, patch-cutter, ball mold, mahogany cleaning rod, a canvas bags of balls, and key with small bone tag; contained within a blue velour lined rosewood-veneered case with brass-reinforced corners, the lid set with a brass plaque inscribed: A SU AMIGO JN ML DE ROZAS JN N TERRERO.
While José de San Martin is revered as the Protector and Liberator of the South, Manuel Belgrano, a leader whom San Martin greatly admired, stands as perhaps Argentina's first great hero. In addition to adopting his flag for the nation, the Buenos Aires delegates of the first National Congress honored him publicly with a number of gifts, including the present silver-mounted pistols. In General don Ignacio Álvarez y Tomás' 1839 biography of General Belgrano, he recounts the gifts congress presented including the present guns:
"El Ejecutivo presentó al Congreso, en gran ceremonia, las Banderas y Estandartes arrancados L enemigo que hoy adornan los Templos para su eterna gloria. La Soberanía Nacional declaró que el General Belgrano había merecido la gratitud de la Patria, y le decretó un premio de "cuarenta" mil pesos sobre el Tesoro, además de los honores acordados al Ejército... La Municipalidad también le ofreció un magnifico bastón, y dos riquísimas pistolas con los emblemas e inscripciones que realizan su mérito."
Other contemporary records of the pistols' presentation survive providing a record of the considerable effort undertaken to have them made:
"...the government commissioned Don Francisco Munoz to send the pistols from London via Don Jose, Belgrano's brother, which were received 23 July 1814, and which cost 637 pesos, 7 reales..."
[cataloguer's translation] (1)
The same note also details the pistols' original order by the City Hall of Buenos Aires, their approval by the government, and that the pistols (along with the baton and medals of Potosí silver) were: "in memory of his action in battles at Tucumán and Salta." Those sentiments were inlaid in gold on the pistols' barrels standing as an appropriately iconic tribute to Belgrano's military role in establishing the nation's independence:
1A LA CIUDAD DE BUENOS AYRES AT GENERAL BELGRANO.
2A VENCEDOR EN TUCUMAN Y SALTA.
3A LA LIBERTAD DE LA PATRIA ESTABLECIDA.
Manuel Belgrano, son of an Italian immigrant, was born into wealth in Buenos Aires in 1770. His education followed that of many sons of the Creole aristocracy beginning with private tutors and completed in Europe. While attending university in Spain, Belgrano, like Simón Bolívar who would follow, was keenly aware of the French Enlightenment's republican ideals.
Belgrano was able to put Enlightenment economic theories into practice, accepting the position of secretary of the merchant tribunal upon returning to Buenos Aires. From 1794-1810, he sought to improve the infrastructure of the province; founding schools, building roads, and introducing new agriculture and industry. All these initiatives were part of a far-sighted attempt to develop the commercial interests of the Creole merchant class and thereby retain more of Argentina's wealth at home. Of course, these efforts towards greater autonomy for his country were antagonistic to the dependency Spain forced on her provinces.
Serving as a militia officer during the British invasions of 1806-1807, Belgrano took part in the Patricios' defeat of British forces. While it was his first military experience, perhaps his greatest lesson was that Buenos Aires was able to successfully defend herself against foreign invasion without the aid of the Spanish crown. Belgrano was also a key player in the drama of the May Revolution, helping to organize the patriot government in the power vacuum left Spain's struggle with France. From this political tumult, Belgrano was once again called to military service and put in command of a badly disorganized Army of the North in order to suppress Royalist forces.
At Tucumán in September, 1812, Belgrano's surprising victory over the Royalist army secured the northern provenances and provided a much-needed respite for a struggling Buenos Aires government to reorganize and strengthen its autonomy. After keeping the Royalists at bay in the north, he led the army to victory at Salta in February, 1813. The battle of Salta holds the distinction as being the only complete surrender of a Royalist army during the Argentine campaign. These victories propelled Belgrano into a national military hero, a remarkable transformation for a man whose service to Argentinean independence had begun as progressive economic minister.
In 1813, he accompanied Bernardino Rivadavia to England. The battle of Waterloo and the restoration of Ferdinand VII brought Belgrano and Rivadavia back across the Atlantic in February, 1816 in time to attend the first meeting of the Constituent Congress of Tucumán, the legislative body that had the honor of declaring Argentina's independence and presenting Belgrano with the present pistols at that time.
Belgrano resumed command of the Army of the North during the years 1816-1819, but with his health in decline and faced with a changing political climate that overthrew the provincial governor of Tucumán, he returned to Buenos Aires where he died on June 20th, 1820. He is rightfully buried in the Hall of Heroes.
"...sabré estimarlas, dice, reconociendo, en ellas una de las memorias de honra con que fueron premiados, en parte los servicios de aquel ilustre porteño. Tu primo, amigo y compañero..." (2)
Rosas to Terrero in an 1834 letter thanking him for the present pistols.
While these pistols offer a remarkable physical record of the early period of Argentina's independence, their story does not end with General Belgrano, but continues onward into one of the most crucial and tumultuous times in Argentina's development, the "Age of Rosas."
Juan Manuel de Rosas, whom biographer John Lynch described as having "a coat of arms, blue eyes and the spirit of a ruler" was born into a wealthy ranching family in 1793. His spirit compelled him to organize a boys' brigade to fight against the British invasions of 1806, and his military prowess as a militia leader set the stage for his political ascendancy as governor of Buenos Aires from 1829-1832 and again from 1835-1852, ruling with popular support for two decades. His rule was described by Charles Darwin in The Voyage of the Beagle as having "an unbounded popularity in the country" becoming "in consequence a despotic power." And yet, such power wrought necessary reforms. Rosas repealed laws allowing the seizure of property from political opponents, ended the slave trade with England, founded a bank that replaced the failed national one - measures crucial to maintaining a united Argentina during the tumultuous post-Revolutionary period. It was under Rosas that all of Argentina's provinces were united for the first time in decades.
José de San Martin so admired Rosas that he sent Rosas his sword which later (along with these pistols) accompanied the enigmatic governor when he fled into exile to England where he died in 1877. The Argentine government later contacted his daughter Manuela seeking her donation to the republic of San Martin's sword, a request she honored in 1898. That the government apparently did not seek the present pistols suggests that they likely were unaware of them, and so they remained with her descendants rather than joining San Martin's sword in the National Museum in Buenos Aires.
Juan N. Terrero who presented the pistols to Rosas in 1834, and named on the case's lid, had strong ties to both men. Some accounts name him as the executor of Manuel Belgrano's estate and as his general attorney. What is certain is that Terrero was a long-term business associate of Rosas' as well as his cousin. His son, Máximo, married Rosas' daughter further strengthening their close ties.
If many accounts are to be believed, Belgrano also had close ties with Rosas, albeit in a somewhat unconventional manner. It is rumored that he fathered an illegitimate son by Rosas' sister-in-law, Maria Ezcurra, and that the child was raised by Rosas as his own after Belgrano's death in 1820. Thus Rosas' subsequent ownership of the pistols, through a gift from a man linked to both leaders seems very appropriate and carries great political as well as familial significance.
Objects from the Latin American revolutions are extremely rare and provenanced relics of the South American Liberators available for private ownership are extraordinarily difficult to obtain. A 1971 exhibition celebrating Manuel Belgrano, was largely of documents and no swords or pistols were included. Indeed, the present set of pistols is the only one with firm and certain Revolutionary provenance belonging to Belgrano whose survival we are aware of. Additionally no letters or signed documents from General Belgrano have been offered in either American or English sale rooms in the last thirty years, yet included with this lot is a rare 1818 broadside proclamation of Manuel Belgrano and a very rare singed document from 1813.
Christie's would like to thank the authors Conor FitzGerald and Richard Austin for this cataloguing.
(1) A. Zinny, Gaceta de Buenos Aires deside 1800 hasta 1821, Buenos Aires, 1875, p. 117.
(2) E. Arana, Juan Manuel de Rosas en la historia argentina, creador y sostén de la unidad nacional, Buenos Aires, 1954, vol. II, p. 743.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
H. L. Blackmore, Gunmakers of London, Supplement, 1350-1850, Ontario, Canada, 1999.
Exposición en Homenaje a Manuel Belgrano Catalogo, Buenos Aires, n/d.
J. Lynch, Argentine Dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas, Oxford, 1981.
The Spanish American Revolutions, New York, 1973.
W. S. Robertson, History of the Latin-American Nations, New York, 1925.
D. A. Santillan, Gran Enciclopedia Argentina, Buenos Aires, 1956.
R. Scheina, Latin American Wars, Washington, 2003.
T. Halperin-Donghi, Politics Economics and Society in Argentina in the Revolutionary Period, Cambridge, 1975.
The smooth-bored barrels (10¾ inches) struck TATHAM & EGG within a gold-lined rectangular cartouches, gold fore-sights and gold-lined touch-holes; gold-inlaid star-bursts, laurel wreaths and panoplies-of-arms surmounted by Phrygian-type caps of liberty decorate the barrels inscribed in gold along their lengths: 1A LA CIUDAD DE BUENOS AYRES AT GENERAL BELGRANO. 2A VENCEDOR EN TUCUMAN Y SALTA. 3A LA LIBERTAD DE LA PATRIA ESTABLECIDA., tangs adorned with panoplies-of-arms in gold; lock-plates with gold inlays of arms, stars and crescent moons, and inscribed with maker's name TATHAM & EGG, set with half-cock push-on safeties, gold-lined rain-proof pans, French cocks and roller-mounted frizzens with gold-inlaid decorative motifs of draperies; walnut full-stocks profusely inlaid with engraved silver decoration depicting a celebration of agricultural wealth of Argentina: grape-bunches on meandering vines, wheat motifs and roses; four engraved silver panels depict trophies-of-arms interspersed in-between, grips inlaid with a two sun-burst motifs of silver engraved with faces after the symbol of Salta; hallmarked gilt-silver escutcheon plates engraved with Argentina's nation symbol surrounded by the words PROVINCIAS UNIDAS DEL RIO DE PLATA; gilt-silver trigger-guards struck with five hallmarks (MB, London, 1814) and decorated with chiseled motifs, butt caps and rear ram rod pipes embellished likewise, ram rods with engraved silver caps; red leather bound powder flask, crystal oil-vessel, patch-cutter, ball mold, mahogany cleaning rod, a canvas bags of balls, and key with small bone tag; contained within a blue velour lined rosewood-veneered case with brass-reinforced corners, the lid set with a brass plaque inscribed: A SU AMIGO JN ML DE ROZAS JN N TERRERO.
While José de San Martin is revered as the Protector and Liberator of the South, Manuel Belgrano, a leader whom San Martin greatly admired, stands as perhaps Argentina's first great hero. In addition to adopting his flag for the nation, the Buenos Aires delegates of the first National Congress honored him publicly with a number of gifts, including the present silver-mounted pistols. In General don Ignacio Álvarez y Tomás' 1839 biography of General Belgrano, he recounts the gifts congress presented including the present guns:
"El Ejecutivo presentó al Congreso, en gran ceremonia, las Banderas y Estandartes arrancados L enemigo que hoy adornan los Templos para su eterna gloria. La Soberanía Nacional declaró que el General Belgrano había merecido la gratitud de la Patria, y le decretó un premio de "cuarenta" mil pesos sobre el Tesoro, además de los honores acordados al Ejército... La Municipalidad también le ofreció un magnifico bastón, y dos riquísimas pistolas con los emblemas e inscripciones que realizan su mérito."
Other contemporary records of the pistols' presentation survive providing a record of the considerable effort undertaken to have them made:
"...the government commissioned Don Francisco Munoz to send the pistols from London via Don Jose, Belgrano's brother, which were received 23 July 1814, and which cost 637 pesos, 7 reales..."
[cataloguer's translation] (1)
The same note also details the pistols' original order by the City Hall of Buenos Aires, their approval by the government, and that the pistols (along with the baton and medals of Potosí silver) were: "in memory of his action in battles at Tucumán and Salta." Those sentiments were inlaid in gold on the pistols' barrels standing as an appropriately iconic tribute to Belgrano's military role in establishing the nation's independence:
1A LA CIUDAD DE BUENOS AYRES AT GENERAL BELGRANO.
2A VENCEDOR EN TUCUMAN Y SALTA.
3A LA LIBERTAD DE LA PATRIA ESTABLECIDA.
Manuel Belgrano, son of an Italian immigrant, was born into wealth in Buenos Aires in 1770. His education followed that of many sons of the Creole aristocracy beginning with private tutors and completed in Europe. While attending university in Spain, Belgrano, like Simón Bolívar who would follow, was keenly aware of the French Enlightenment's republican ideals.
Belgrano was able to put Enlightenment economic theories into practice, accepting the position of secretary of the merchant tribunal upon returning to Buenos Aires. From 1794-1810, he sought to improve the infrastructure of the province; founding schools, building roads, and introducing new agriculture and industry. All these initiatives were part of a far-sighted attempt to develop the commercial interests of the Creole merchant class and thereby retain more of Argentina's wealth at home. Of course, these efforts towards greater autonomy for his country were antagonistic to the dependency Spain forced on her provinces.
Serving as a militia officer during the British invasions of 1806-1807, Belgrano took part in the Patricios' defeat of British forces. While it was his first military experience, perhaps his greatest lesson was that Buenos Aires was able to successfully defend herself against foreign invasion without the aid of the Spanish crown. Belgrano was also a key player in the drama of the May Revolution, helping to organize the patriot government in the power vacuum left Spain's struggle with France. From this political tumult, Belgrano was once again called to military service and put in command of a badly disorganized Army of the North in order to suppress Royalist forces.
At Tucumán in September, 1812, Belgrano's surprising victory over the Royalist army secured the northern provenances and provided a much-needed respite for a struggling Buenos Aires government to reorganize and strengthen its autonomy. After keeping the Royalists at bay in the north, he led the army to victory at Salta in February, 1813. The battle of Salta holds the distinction as being the only complete surrender of a Royalist army during the Argentine campaign. These victories propelled Belgrano into a national military hero, a remarkable transformation for a man whose service to Argentinean independence had begun as progressive economic minister.
In 1813, he accompanied Bernardino Rivadavia to England. The battle of Waterloo and the restoration of Ferdinand VII brought Belgrano and Rivadavia back across the Atlantic in February, 1816 in time to attend the first meeting of the Constituent Congress of Tucumán, the legislative body that had the honor of declaring Argentina's independence and presenting Belgrano with the present pistols at that time.
Belgrano resumed command of the Army of the North during the years 1816-1819, but with his health in decline and faced with a changing political climate that overthrew the provincial governor of Tucumán, he returned to Buenos Aires where he died on June 20th, 1820. He is rightfully buried in the Hall of Heroes.
"...sabré estimarlas, dice, reconociendo, en ellas una de las memorias de honra con que fueron premiados, en parte los servicios de aquel ilustre porteño. Tu primo, amigo y compañero..." (2)
Rosas to Terrero in an 1834 letter thanking him for the present pistols.
While these pistols offer a remarkable physical record of the early period of Argentina's independence, their story does not end with General Belgrano, but continues onward into one of the most crucial and tumultuous times in Argentina's development, the "Age of Rosas."
Juan Manuel de Rosas, whom biographer John Lynch described as having "a coat of arms, blue eyes and the spirit of a ruler" was born into a wealthy ranching family in 1793. His spirit compelled him to organize a boys' brigade to fight against the British invasions of 1806, and his military prowess as a militia leader set the stage for his political ascendancy as governor of Buenos Aires from 1829-1832 and again from 1835-1852, ruling with popular support for two decades. His rule was described by Charles Darwin in The Voyage of the Beagle as having "an unbounded popularity in the country" becoming "in consequence a despotic power." And yet, such power wrought necessary reforms. Rosas repealed laws allowing the seizure of property from political opponents, ended the slave trade with England, founded a bank that replaced the failed national one - measures crucial to maintaining a united Argentina during the tumultuous post-Revolutionary period. It was under Rosas that all of Argentina's provinces were united for the first time in decades.
José de San Martin so admired Rosas that he sent Rosas his sword which later (along with these pistols) accompanied the enigmatic governor when he fled into exile to England where he died in 1877. The Argentine government later contacted his daughter Manuela seeking her donation to the republic of San Martin's sword, a request she honored in 1898. That the government apparently did not seek the present pistols suggests that they likely were unaware of them, and so they remained with her descendants rather than joining San Martin's sword in the National Museum in Buenos Aires.
Juan N. Terrero who presented the pistols to Rosas in 1834, and named on the case's lid, had strong ties to both men. Some accounts name him as the executor of Manuel Belgrano's estate and as his general attorney. What is certain is that Terrero was a long-term business associate of Rosas' as well as his cousin. His son, Máximo, married Rosas' daughter further strengthening their close ties.
If many accounts are to be believed, Belgrano also had close ties with Rosas, albeit in a somewhat unconventional manner. It is rumored that he fathered an illegitimate son by Rosas' sister-in-law, Maria Ezcurra, and that the child was raised by Rosas as his own after Belgrano's death in 1820. Thus Rosas' subsequent ownership of the pistols, through a gift from a man linked to both leaders seems very appropriate and carries great political as well as familial significance.
Objects from the Latin American revolutions are extremely rare and provenanced relics of the South American Liberators available for private ownership are extraordinarily difficult to obtain. A 1971 exhibition celebrating Manuel Belgrano, was largely of documents and no swords or pistols were included. Indeed, the present set of pistols is the only one with firm and certain Revolutionary provenance belonging to Belgrano whose survival we are aware of. Additionally no letters or signed documents from General Belgrano have been offered in either American or English sale rooms in the last thirty years, yet included with this lot is a rare 1818 broadside proclamation of Manuel Belgrano and a very rare singed document from 1813.
Christie's would like to thank the authors Conor FitzGerald and Richard Austin for this cataloguing.
(1) A. Zinny, Gaceta de Buenos Aires deside 1800 hasta 1821, Buenos Aires, 1875, p. 117.
(2) E. Arana, Juan Manuel de Rosas en la historia argentina, creador y sostén de la unidad nacional, Buenos Aires, 1954, vol. II, p. 743.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
H. L. Blackmore, Gunmakers of London, Supplement, 1350-1850, Ontario, Canada, 1999.
Exposición en Homenaje a Manuel Belgrano Catalogo, Buenos Aires, n/d.
J. Lynch, Argentine Dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas, Oxford, 1981.
The Spanish American Revolutions, New York, 1973.
W. S. Robertson, History of the Latin-American Nations, New York, 1925.
D. A. Santillan, Gran Enciclopedia Argentina, Buenos Aires, 1956.
R. Scheina, Latin American Wars, Washington, 2003.
T. Halperin-Donghi, Politics Economics and Society in Argentina in the Revolutionary Period, Cambridge, 1975.