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Lot Essay
No other founder articulated such a clear and prescient vision of America's future political, military, and economic strength or crafted such ingenious mechanisms to bind the nation together.
--Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton (2004).
Alexander Hamilton is arguably the Founding Father who had the greatest and most long-lasting impact on the shaping of America. His remarkable life, from abandoned orphan to leading roles in the Revolution and first Presidency, continues to captivate and inspire over two centuries later. Among Hamilton’s most personal of possessions, these pistols and their sale represent a rare opportunity to acquire national treasures that evoke the pulse of this nation’s beginnings.
Small in scale and exquisitely fabricated of French manufacture, these pistols were known as pocket pistols or pistolets du voyage, and were intended for civilian rather than military life. Sized so they could be easily carried, one in each coat pocket, the pistols have a large caliber and were well-suited for close range defense such as protection from thieves. Their fine craftsmanship and French origins would have been of particular appeal to Hamilton, who appreciated artistic excellence and whose house, The Grange, featured a number of furnishings in the French taste (figs. 1, 2). This pair is one of only two surviving pairs known to have been owned by the Founding Father.[i] Both bear Hamilton’s initials engraved on the mounts and both descended directly in the family to Hamilton’s great-great-grandson, Schuyler Van Cortlandt Hamilton (1882-1951), who in 1950 sold the pair offered here to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (fig. 3).
Engraved on the lock plates Jalabert-Lamotte, the pistols can be dated to the six-year period between July 1798 and Hamilton’s death in July 1804. Their maker, Jean-Louis Jalabert (1766-1846) married Marie-Anne Lamotte on July 27, 1798 and, as she hailed from a well-established family of gunmakers, thereafter signed his works with both of their last names. Jalabert was born in Saint-Etienne, an important market town in southeastern France that from the sixteenth century had been a center for the production of weapons, including swords, knives, and firearms. Taught by his father, Christophe Jalabert, and later in Paris in both the production of firearms and their decoration, Jalabert returned to Saint Etienne in the 1790s. There, he specialized in hunting and luxury arms, such as these pistols, and with his skilled training, technical inventions, and the sales network of the Lamotte family, he became one of the most significant arms makers of his time.[ii]
Hamilton may have purchased the pistols or received them as a gift. As mentioned, the Lamotte family of gunsmiths exported their wares internationally, particularly to Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, and America and living in New York City, Hamilton would have had ready access to imported goods.[iii] Another possibility is that the pistols were given to Hamilton by a friend or acquaintance from his professional life. Having served as Secretary of the Treasury during the first presidential term, Hamilton was highly connected to the foremost figures in French politics of the time and these pistols could very well have been a diplomatic gift. One his earliest and dearest friends was the Marquis de Lafayette, with whom he shared an intimate bond. In the early 1790s, Alexander and his wife Eliza (fig. 4) actively supported French refugees from the Terror, and the then Secretary of the Treasury enjoyed a close relationship with Charles-Maruice de Talleyrand-Périgord, the exiled diplomat and stateman who fled France after the execution of Louis XVI.
His good friend, Gouvernor Morris (1752-1816), served as Minister Plenipotentiary to France from 1792 to 1794, traveled through Europe for four years, and returned to New York in 1798. Upon his return, he was a frequent guest at the Hamilton household and his close relationship with Hamilton later evident in his bedside vigil while his friend died from wounds inflicted in the duel with Burr. Other figures in Hamilton’s life with close ties to France include Louis Le Guen, his primary client during his later years, who had emigrated from France in 1794. Hamilton served as Le Guen’s lawyer during a number of cases regarding his client’s land interests and mercantile activity and procured a settlement for his client in the unprecedented amount of almost $120,000. In 1800, Le Guen thanked Hamilton in part by giving him a French ormolu clock.[iv]
Le Guen’s clock and these pistols were just a few of Hamilton’s possessions that illustrate his admiration of fine artistry, particularly that in the French style. In 1791, Angelica Church wrote to her sister, Eliza, about the purchase of English or French china for the Hamiltons. Angelica advocated French, as “it will certainly be more beautiful and I know Hamilton likes the beautiful in every way, the Beauties of nature and art are not lost on him.”[v] Among the surviving furniture owned by Hamilton is a suite of chairs and a sofa in the Louis XVI style attributed to Philadelphia cabinetmaker Adam Haines, several of which are displayed at Hamilton Grange today.[vi]
These pistols date from a complex period in Hamilton’s life. After leaving his post as Secretary of the Treasury at the close of Washington’s first presidential administration, he returned to the practice of law in New York. But his departure from his post at the treasury did not spell the end of his public career. He remained deeply involved in the political life of the nation—becoming the de facto leader of the emerging Federalist Party—a counterweight to the Democratic-Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. In 1798, when George Washington came out of retirement for the very last time to take command of a provisional army to counter an anticipated French invasion during the Quasi-War, he named Hamilton his second-in-command. The following year saw the death of his greatest champion and supporter, George Washington. Hamilton would also figure prominently in the election of 1800, working behind the scenes not only to defeat Jefferson and his supporters, but president John Adams as well, the pair suffering a political falling out over their differing approaches to ending the undeclared war with France. The election of 1800 resulted in a tie between the two Democratic-Republican candidates, which threw the election to the House of Representatives to decide between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. Unwilling to support Burr, whom he called “a dangerous man, and one who ought not to be trusted with the reins of government,” his he threw his political weight behind Jefferson, who won the vote after 35 ballots—setting Hamilton on a collision course that would end on the duelling grounds in Weehawken.
After Hamilton’s death, the pistols likely remained among the bulk of his personal estate before passing on to his descendants either during his widow’s lifetime or immediately after. According to Schuyler Van Cortlandt Hamilton, who sold the pistols to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1950, the pistols were given by Elizabeth Hamilton to her grandson, Brigadier General Schuyler Hamilton (1822-1903) (fig. 5). The latter graduated from West Point in 1841 and fought with distinction in the Mexican War and later the Civil War. At the time of his death in 1903, he owned Alexander Hamilton’s sword knot, which he prescribed was to pass to his only surviving son, Schuyler Hamilton, Jr. (1853-1907) for his life and thence to his son, Schuyler Van Cortlandt Hamilton.[vii] The pistols are not known to be specifically mentioned and while the younger Schuyler wrote that he received them directly from his grandfather, they may have passed first to his father, who died only four years after his grandfather.
[i] The other pair of pistols owned by Hamilton recently sold at auction, see Rock Island Auction Company, 14 May 2021, lot 125. A third pair of pistols famously associated with Hamilton by their use in the duel with Aaron Burr in 1804 were owned by Hamilton’s brother-in-law John Barker Church, and now in the collection of JP Morgan Chase. A single-barrel fowling piece marked A. Hamilton, N.Y. was reputedly given by Hamilton to John Trumbull, then later acquired by Hamilton’s grandson, Dr. Allan MacLane Hamilton, but its whereabouts is unknown, see Katherine B. Menz, Historic Furnishings Report: Hamilton Grange National Monument (National Park Service, US Department of the Interior, 1986), p. 76, available at https://npshistory.com/publications/hagr/hfr.pdf. Another pair of dueling pistols with unconfirmed history was previously at the Grange, and is also unlocated today, see Eric Sloane and Edward Anthony, Mr. Daniels and the Grange (New York, 1968), pp. viii, 105.
[ii] M. Descreux, Notices Biographiques Stéphanoises (Saint-Etienne, France, 1868), pp. 191-193, 217-220.
[iii] Ibid., p. 193.
[iv] Sloane and Anthony, op. cit., p. 59, cited in https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-25-02-0153; Menz, op. cit., p. 66.
[v] Cited in Menz, p. 64.
[vi] See “Hamilton Grange Parlor Collection,” available at https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/hamilton-grange-parlor-collection.htm.
[vii] Cuyler Reynolds, Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley, vol. III (New York, 1914), pp. 1387-1388; Frank Jastrzembski, “Schuyler Hamilton, Scion of American Heroes, is a Civil War ‘What if’,” available at https://www.historynet.com/schuyler-hamilton-scion-of-american-heroes-is-a-civil-war-what-if/; “Alexander Hamilton’s Swordknot,” The Coalgate Courier, 23 April 1903, p. 2.
--Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton (2004).
Alexander Hamilton is arguably the Founding Father who had the greatest and most long-lasting impact on the shaping of America. His remarkable life, from abandoned orphan to leading roles in the Revolution and first Presidency, continues to captivate and inspire over two centuries later. Among Hamilton’s most personal of possessions, these pistols and their sale represent a rare opportunity to acquire national treasures that evoke the pulse of this nation’s beginnings.
Small in scale and exquisitely fabricated of French manufacture, these pistols were known as pocket pistols or pistolets du voyage, and were intended for civilian rather than military life. Sized so they could be easily carried, one in each coat pocket, the pistols have a large caliber and were well-suited for close range defense such as protection from thieves. Their fine craftsmanship and French origins would have been of particular appeal to Hamilton, who appreciated artistic excellence and whose house, The Grange, featured a number of furnishings in the French taste (figs. 1, 2). This pair is one of only two surviving pairs known to have been owned by the Founding Father.[i] Both bear Hamilton’s initials engraved on the mounts and both descended directly in the family to Hamilton’s great-great-grandson, Schuyler Van Cortlandt Hamilton (1882-1951), who in 1950 sold the pair offered here to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (fig. 3).
Engraved on the lock plates Jalabert-Lamotte, the pistols can be dated to the six-year period between July 1798 and Hamilton’s death in July 1804. Their maker, Jean-Louis Jalabert (1766-1846) married Marie-Anne Lamotte on July 27, 1798 and, as she hailed from a well-established family of gunmakers, thereafter signed his works with both of their last names. Jalabert was born in Saint-Etienne, an important market town in southeastern France that from the sixteenth century had been a center for the production of weapons, including swords, knives, and firearms. Taught by his father, Christophe Jalabert, and later in Paris in both the production of firearms and their decoration, Jalabert returned to Saint Etienne in the 1790s. There, he specialized in hunting and luxury arms, such as these pistols, and with his skilled training, technical inventions, and the sales network of the Lamotte family, he became one of the most significant arms makers of his time.[ii]
Hamilton may have purchased the pistols or received them as a gift. As mentioned, the Lamotte family of gunsmiths exported their wares internationally, particularly to Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, and America and living in New York City, Hamilton would have had ready access to imported goods.[iii] Another possibility is that the pistols were given to Hamilton by a friend or acquaintance from his professional life. Having served as Secretary of the Treasury during the first presidential term, Hamilton was highly connected to the foremost figures in French politics of the time and these pistols could very well have been a diplomatic gift. One his earliest and dearest friends was the Marquis de Lafayette, with whom he shared an intimate bond. In the early 1790s, Alexander and his wife Eliza (fig. 4) actively supported French refugees from the Terror, and the then Secretary of the Treasury enjoyed a close relationship with Charles-Maruice de Talleyrand-Périgord, the exiled diplomat and stateman who fled France after the execution of Louis XVI.
His good friend, Gouvernor Morris (1752-1816), served as Minister Plenipotentiary to France from 1792 to 1794, traveled through Europe for four years, and returned to New York in 1798. Upon his return, he was a frequent guest at the Hamilton household and his close relationship with Hamilton later evident in his bedside vigil while his friend died from wounds inflicted in the duel with Burr. Other figures in Hamilton’s life with close ties to France include Louis Le Guen, his primary client during his later years, who had emigrated from France in 1794. Hamilton served as Le Guen’s lawyer during a number of cases regarding his client’s land interests and mercantile activity and procured a settlement for his client in the unprecedented amount of almost $120,000. In 1800, Le Guen thanked Hamilton in part by giving him a French ormolu clock.[iv]
Le Guen’s clock and these pistols were just a few of Hamilton’s possessions that illustrate his admiration of fine artistry, particularly that in the French style. In 1791, Angelica Church wrote to her sister, Eliza, about the purchase of English or French china for the Hamiltons. Angelica advocated French, as “it will certainly be more beautiful and I know Hamilton likes the beautiful in every way, the Beauties of nature and art are not lost on him.”[v] Among the surviving furniture owned by Hamilton is a suite of chairs and a sofa in the Louis XVI style attributed to Philadelphia cabinetmaker Adam Haines, several of which are displayed at Hamilton Grange today.[vi]
These pistols date from a complex period in Hamilton’s life. After leaving his post as Secretary of the Treasury at the close of Washington’s first presidential administration, he returned to the practice of law in New York. But his departure from his post at the treasury did not spell the end of his public career. He remained deeply involved in the political life of the nation—becoming the de facto leader of the emerging Federalist Party—a counterweight to the Democratic-Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. In 1798, when George Washington came out of retirement for the very last time to take command of a provisional army to counter an anticipated French invasion during the Quasi-War, he named Hamilton his second-in-command. The following year saw the death of his greatest champion and supporter, George Washington. Hamilton would also figure prominently in the election of 1800, working behind the scenes not only to defeat Jefferson and his supporters, but president John Adams as well, the pair suffering a political falling out over their differing approaches to ending the undeclared war with France. The election of 1800 resulted in a tie between the two Democratic-Republican candidates, which threw the election to the House of Representatives to decide between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. Unwilling to support Burr, whom he called “a dangerous man, and one who ought not to be trusted with the reins of government,” his he threw his political weight behind Jefferson, who won the vote after 35 ballots—setting Hamilton on a collision course that would end on the duelling grounds in Weehawken.
After Hamilton’s death, the pistols likely remained among the bulk of his personal estate before passing on to his descendants either during his widow’s lifetime or immediately after. According to Schuyler Van Cortlandt Hamilton, who sold the pistols to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1950, the pistols were given by Elizabeth Hamilton to her grandson, Brigadier General Schuyler Hamilton (1822-1903) (fig. 5). The latter graduated from West Point in 1841 and fought with distinction in the Mexican War and later the Civil War. At the time of his death in 1903, he owned Alexander Hamilton’s sword knot, which he prescribed was to pass to his only surviving son, Schuyler Hamilton, Jr. (1853-1907) for his life and thence to his son, Schuyler Van Cortlandt Hamilton.[vii] The pistols are not known to be specifically mentioned and while the younger Schuyler wrote that he received them directly from his grandfather, they may have passed first to his father, who died only four years after his grandfather.
[i] The other pair of pistols owned by Hamilton recently sold at auction, see Rock Island Auction Company, 14 May 2021, lot 125. A third pair of pistols famously associated with Hamilton by their use in the duel with Aaron Burr in 1804 were owned by Hamilton’s brother-in-law John Barker Church, and now in the collection of JP Morgan Chase. A single-barrel fowling piece marked A. Hamilton, N.Y. was reputedly given by Hamilton to John Trumbull, then later acquired by Hamilton’s grandson, Dr. Allan MacLane Hamilton, but its whereabouts is unknown, see Katherine B. Menz, Historic Furnishings Report: Hamilton Grange National Monument (National Park Service, US Department of the Interior, 1986), p. 76, available at https://npshistory.com/publications/hagr/hfr.pdf. Another pair of dueling pistols with unconfirmed history was previously at the Grange, and is also unlocated today, see Eric Sloane and Edward Anthony, Mr. Daniels and the Grange (New York, 1968), pp. viii, 105.
[ii] M. Descreux, Notices Biographiques Stéphanoises (Saint-Etienne, France, 1868), pp. 191-193, 217-220.
[iii] Ibid., p. 193.
[iv] Sloane and Anthony, op. cit., p. 59, cited in https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-25-02-0153; Menz, op. cit., p. 66.
[v] Cited in Menz, p. 64.
[vi] See “Hamilton Grange Parlor Collection,” available at https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/hamilton-grange-parlor-collection.htm.
[vii] Cuyler Reynolds, Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley, vol. III (New York, 1914), pp. 1387-1388; Frank Jastrzembski, “Schuyler Hamilton, Scion of American Heroes, is a Civil War ‘What if’,” available at https://www.historynet.com/schuyler-hamilton-scion-of-american-heroes-is-a-civil-war-what-if/; “Alexander Hamilton’s Swordknot,” The Coalgate Courier, 23 April 1903, p. 2.