France | Two precious pistols of Napoleon I at auction

(Paris) Two richly decorated pistols that belonged to Napoleon I^er until his first abdication in 1814 and with which he tried to commit suicide will be put up for auction on Sunday near Paris, we learned from the Osenat auction house, which is organizing the sale.

Sold in their precious wooden case (walnut burl, ebony, green velvet embroidered with gold, etc.) and with their accessories, “these two percussion pistols, inlaid with gold and silver, where the profile of the emperor is represented, are estimated at 1.2 to 1.5 million euros,” Jean-Pierre Osenat, expert, told AFP.

Napoleon “had specially ordered them from the gunsmith Louis Marin Gosset, working at the Versailles factory. One has a shorter octagonal barrel than the other,” he explained.

They are part of the hours of French history that preceded and followed the first abdication of the emperor at the beginning of April 1814 and are linked to the attempted suicide of Napoleon I.^erin Fontainebleau, near Paris, on the night of April 12 to 13.

“After the defeat in the French campaign, he was totally depressed and wanted to commit suicide with these weapons, but his Grand Equerry Caulaincourt (Armand Augustin Louis, Marquis de Caulaincourt, Duke of Vicenza, 1773-1827) removed the powder. Napoleon then took poison but vomited it up and did not die,” says Mr. Osenat.

“The emperor then offered the two pistols with a sword to Caulaincourt in memory of his loyalty in those dark days. They have remained in his family since then, who have decided to part with them,” the expert said.

He underlines “the great artistic and historical value of this Napoleonic souvenir sought after throughout the world” and recalls that in November, the famous black bicorn with its blue, white and red cockade sold for 1.932 million euros (including fees), a world record.

Defeated after more than ten years of war that had set Europe ablaze, Napoleon I^er left power in a first abdication in 1814. In return, he was promised sovereignty over the island of Elba, an Italian principality at the latitude of Corsica.

This defeat opened the period of the “Hundred Days”, which would lead to his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, marking his second abdication in June 1815 and his exile on the island of Saint Helena, where he would die in May 1821.