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Lot Essay
Nicolas-Noël Boutet (1761-1833) was the premier gunsmith of France during an important period of arms manufacture. Son of a French royal gunsmith and son-in-law of another, Boutet survived the Revolution of 1789 to become an important gunsmith under the subsequent rise of Napoleon. Boutet was named Directeur Artiste of the newly formed Versailles Arms Manufactory in 1792 and in 1795 was appointed head of the newly created Arms de luxe department, responsible for richly decorated presentation arms suitable for military heroes or heads of state. Napoleon then made Boutet his chief gunsmith from 1800 to 1818. During this period Boutet was able to marry technical perfection and precision of workmanship with the finest decoration. Skilled crafts guilds had been disbanded with the decline of Louis XVI; Boutet hired many masters of silversmithing, lock-making and goldsmithing for his Versailles workshops. Working in the Empire idiom that took hold with Napoleon's rise and with the Mediterranean campaigns, Boutet fashioned the finest presentation arms of the period, richly embellishing them with the Graeco-Roman and Egyptian ornament that reflected the period's ideals of military honor and glory.
This superbly decorated pistol typifies the highest level of design and craftsmanship in French gunmaking of the Napoleonic period and is typical of Boutet’s finest deluxe arms. It belongs to a small series of pistols decorated on the grips with the crowned imperial eagle enclosing the emblem of the Legion of Honor (for example, Bottet 1903, pl. XLV). Established by Napoleon in 1802, the Légion d’Honneur was the highest and most prestigious order of merit at the time. Pistols of this design were presumably presented by Napoleon to select members of the order. The backstrap on the grip, now blank, was presumably intended for a presentation inscription. In this example, however, the Order’s emblem has subsequently been replaced with the arms and monogram of a member of the Guzman-Olivares family, one of Spain’s oldest noble families.
The cast and chased silver mounts are of a design used on a number of Boutet pistols, including those of the well known garniture of arms in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. No. 1970.179.1; Pyhrr 1973). Although hallmarked for the period 1798-1809, they had a long working life in the Versailles factory in later years. Indeed, the absence of any reference to Versailles or Boutet’s role as Directeur artiste in the inscriptions on the lock and barrel suggests that the present form of the pistol may date after 1818, when Boutet lost his concession. The gunmaker’s signature in Gothic script on the lockplate also signals a date during the reign of Louis XVIII (r.1814-24).
The pistol was originally one of a pair. The matching barrel, also numbered 299, now forms part of a composite pistol in a private collection, suggesting that the mate was damaged and only the barrel saved.
This superbly decorated pistol typifies the highest level of design and craftsmanship in French gunmaking of the Napoleonic period and is typical of Boutet’s finest deluxe arms. It belongs to a small series of pistols decorated on the grips with the crowned imperial eagle enclosing the emblem of the Legion of Honor (for example, Bottet 1903, pl. XLV). Established by Napoleon in 1802, the Légion d’Honneur was the highest and most prestigious order of merit at the time. Pistols of this design were presumably presented by Napoleon to select members of the order. The backstrap on the grip, now blank, was presumably intended for a presentation inscription. In this example, however, the Order’s emblem has subsequently been replaced with the arms and monogram of a member of the Guzman-Olivares family, one of Spain’s oldest noble families.
The cast and chased silver mounts are of a design used on a number of Boutet pistols, including those of the well known garniture of arms in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. No. 1970.179.1; Pyhrr 1973). Although hallmarked for the period 1798-1809, they had a long working life in the Versailles factory in later years. Indeed, the absence of any reference to Versailles or Boutet’s role as Directeur artiste in the inscriptions on the lock and barrel suggests that the present form of the pistol may date after 1818, when Boutet lost his concession. The gunmaker’s signature in Gothic script on the lockplate also signals a date during the reign of Louis XVIII (r.1814-24).
The pistol was originally one of a pair. The matching barrel, also numbered 299, now forms part of a composite pistol in a private collection, suggesting that the mate was damaged and only the barrel saved.