A Superb Historic Cased Pair of

Flintlock Pistols, armes de luxe, by Boutet, Directeur Artiste, Manufacture à Versailles

c. 1805 – 1810

France, Versailles. Steel, gold, brass, wood walnut, box, ebony, mahogany, horn, textile.

Case: 49 cm / 19 in × 31 cm / 12.25 in

Height of open case: 37 cm / 14.5 in Each pistol: 38.5 cm / 15.25 in

PROVENANCE

Baron Édouard d’Hanmer-Claybrooke (1787-1842). Thence by descent through the family line

EXHIBITED

Exposition Internationale Universelle, Paris, 1900

The name Nicolas Noël Boutet (1761-1833) instantly summons up images of exceptional firearms made with quite extraordinary skill and of almost matchless quality which so perfectly epitomised the fashionable decorative taste of their day. Boutet presided over the great arms manufactory at Versailles, of which the primary requirement was the production of edged weapons and firearms for French military service, but it is for his non-governmental armes de luxe that he is rightly remembered and celebrated to this day (and which are specifically denoted within the Napoleonic period by the inclusion in his signature of the title ‘Directeur Artiste’ ). The unashamed grandeur of this title was indeed a self-affirmation, but one which has never been in dispute.