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"I must die then at the
hands of Frenchmen!"
- Last words of Louis-Antoine-Henri de Bourbon, Duke of Enghien
LOT 3281
Historic Pair of Gilt Bronze Mounted and Relief Chiseled Kuchenreuter Flintlock Officer’s Pistols with Case
-A) Kuchenreuter Flintlock Officer’s Pistol - NSN, 42 bore cal., 10 1/2 inch round bbl., bright/gilt bronze finish, walnut stock. By tradition, this fine pair of late 18th century pistols by Jacob Kuchenreuter are believed to have belonged to Louis-Antoine-Henri de Bourbon-Condé, duc d’Enghien (1772-1804), the last descendant of the House of Condé. Louis was related to the French branch of the House of Bourbon with his life and perhaps more famously his death being linked to the French Revolution and subsequent attempts to restore the Bourbon monarchy and overthrow Napoleon. The only son of Louis Henry II, Prince of Condé, he began his military career in 1788 at the age of sixteen and, following the fall of the Bastille in 1789, left France. Serving under his father and grandfather
in what was known as the Condé Army, Louis took part in the Duke of Brunswick’s failed invasion of revolutionary France in 1792. Following
the Peace of Luneville in 1801, the Condé Army was disbanded and
Louis settled at Ettenheim in Baden near the Rhine and married Princess Charlotte, niece of Cardinal de Rohan. However, in 1804 Louis was falsely implicated in the Cadoudal-Pichegru conspiracy, a plan which involved
the assassination of Napoleon and the restoration of the blood line of
the Bourbons on the throne of France. Napoleon soon issued orders for
his arrest, and, on March 15, 1804, his house was surrounded by French gendarmes, and he was taken into custody. Louis was quickly taken back to France and held at the Chateau de Vincennes near Paris. He was tried by a commission of French colonels, but it soon became apparent that he was
innocent of any involvement in the conspiracy. The charges were changed to an accusation of joining a new coalition against France. This was harder for Louis defend given his history of raising arms against his own country. He was found guilty and shot in the moat of the chateau on March 21, 1804. The tapering round barrels are scratch rifled, with brass spider front sights, signed “JACOB. KUCHENREUTER” in silver on the sighting flats, finely chiseled in low relief at the breech ends with a stag in a wooded landscape surrounded by scrollwork, and with gold lined maker’s marks in front of the tangs. The tangs are numbered “1” and “2” respectively and incorporate the notch back sights of one standing and one folding leaf. Rounded locks chiseled in low relief with a stag being chased through woodland by a hound on the plates with the cocks and frizzens chiseled with scrollwork. Plain trigger plates with single set triggers. Fine cast and chased gilt bronze furniture including trigger guards, solid sideplates, spurred pommels and removable blanking plates covering an aperture for a shoulder stock. The furniture is decorated with rococo ornament and numerous vignettes depicting woodland scenes involving stags, a hound and on the trigger guard bows, a female hunter in contemporary attire holding a gun with a dead stag at her feet. Well-figured molded walnut full-length stocks finely carved in high relief around the barrel tangs with scrollwork and a bouquet of flowers. The forearms have dark horn caps and wooden ramrods with dark horn tips. In recent wooden case with a cushioned base lined with crimson material, the exterior of the lid with small inlaid gold colored fleur- de-lis and shaped plaque engraved with a ducal crown. With key. CONDITION: Fine. The barrel is a grey patina with dark patches of mild
pitting and some scattered light surface oxidation. The chiseled ornament is clear with minor
handling softening, and the silver inlaid signature is distinct. Some loss
to gilding within the maker’s stamp at the breech. The lock has a brighter
patina with some scattered discoloration and light surface corrosion
marking, again chiseling remains clear with some handling softening.
Furniture retains nearly all its bright gilt finish with slight handling
softening to the high points of the cast and chased decoration. Stock with scattered minor age related handling and storage marks and blemishes,
carved ornament crisp and sharp. Mechanically excellent.
Case is good as relined.
B) Kuchenreuter Flintlock Officer’s Pistol - NSN, 42 bore cal., 10 1/2 inch round bbl., bright/gilt bronze finish, raised relief carved
walnut stock. See “A.”
CONDITION: Fine. The barrel displays grey patina with dark patches of
light pitting and scattered light surface oxidation. The chiselled ornament
is clear with minor handling softening, and the silver inlaid signature is
distinct. Some loss to gilding within the maker’s stamp at the breech.
The lock has a brighter patina with some scattered discoloration and
light surface corrosion marking, again chiselling remains clear with
some handling softening. Furniture retains nearly all its bright gilt finish
with slight handling softening to the high points of the cast and chased decoration. Stock with scattered minor age related handling and storage
marks and blemishes, carved ornament crisp and sharp.
Mechanically excellent. 199 Estimate: 18,000 - 25,000