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LOT 1241
- Serial no. 9178, 20 gauge, 26 1/4 inch solid rib bbl., gold/
brown/casehardened/blue finish, deluxe walnut stock.
This extraordinary shotgun was manufactured in 1856 in
commemoration of the birth of Prince Imperial Napoleon
Eugene Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte (Louis-Napoleon) born on
March 16, 1856, to Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie.
He was their only child and the heir to the thrown. By that point,
Napoleon III was in firm control of the Second French Empire
having served as president in 1848 to 1852 and then being
declared emperor in December 1852. He married Eugenie in
1853. The birth of the Prince Imperial was significant as it gave
Napoleon III and France an heir to the throne which in theory
provided stability. Shortly after his birth, the French and their
British and Ottoman allies secured victory over the Russian
Empire in the Crimean War, and Napoleon III’s prestige was at an
all time high.
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