Nicholas-Noël Boutet & Jean LePage

[corrado26]

May be yes, may be no, I don't know it, its condition is too bad to decide it, but the style of the wood is very similar to the works of Le Page.

[survtech]

Fernando, thank you for posting the photographs; the history is interesting....


With regard to the pocket pistol; it is known that LePage also retailed Liege-made pistols from his Paris shop.

[survtech]

It is known that Le Page used to produce all guns for Napoleon's personal use, as being preferred by him to those of Boutet, due to a flaw in their nechanism.

Interesting comment Fernando. Why would Napoleon grant Boutet an 18 year concession as Director Artiste of the Versailles Manufactory to manufacture Armes Deluxe and military arms if Boutet's firearms were flawed?

Between 1800-1813 the Versailles Manufactory delivered 10,000 muskets and musketons to the grenadiers and chasseurs of Imperial Guard. (Dean Taylor Arms Collecting Vol.20 No.4 1982).

Napoleon also commissioned Boutet to produce arms for his family, Marshals of the Empire and other people important to him.

Jean LePage produced superb and beautiful firearms but, other than your comment, I have not found any evidence to suggest that his firearms were technically superior to those of Boutet. Can this statement be supported with evidence?

Respectfully
Mike Barnett
Perth
Western Australia

[fernando]

Originally Posted by survtech

[I]... Why would Napoleon grant Boutet an 18 year concession as Director Artiste of the Versailles Manufactory to manufacture Armes Deluxe and military arms if Boutet's firearms were flawed?
I have not found any evidence to suggest that his firearms were technically superior to those of Boutet. Can this statement be supported with evidence?...

No Mike, i have no phisical evidence, nor i hope that such point of view, that i heard through the grapevine, will tie me to the whipping pole ... i hope.
Yet the full reading was:

... Those from Boutet were the ones that Napoleon offered because he called them "fusil de vitrine" (showcase). Good to see but not to use. The angle of the flint's impact was very steep, which broke the dog's neck very easily. This did not happen to LePage's weapons ...

[fernando]

Originally Posted by survtech

...With regard to the pocket pistol; it is known that LePage also retailed Liege-made pistols from his Paris shop...

So those products were not manufactured in LePage workshops !

[survtech]

I heard through the grapevine, will tie me to the whipping pole

Perhaps you should be tied to the whipping pole Fernando, if only for a few lashes, heard it through the grapevine is gossip, not research, I know you know that, and I am just having a little fun with you.

With much respect and a wink

Mike

[fernando]

Originally Posted by survtech

... heard it through the grapevine is gossip, not research ...

Mike, to tell you the truth, i didn't hear it through the grapevine. It is just that i had no permission to publish the author's name; one supposed to know rather well what he is talking about. So this is the way that i realized would be the trick !

[fernando]

More from the grapevine ... or should i say, courtesy Rainer Daehnhardt .


" For those who are willing to learn and never handled very long pistol barrels of royal provenance remounted at a later period:
Here is a Louis XIII wheellock pistol barrel of the XVIIth century used at Napoleon’s time to create a small flintlock fowler for a young boy.
The other barrel still exists in a museum, all complete with it’s french wheelock ignition system and it’s original butt. Who put it together was an apprentice of the LePage shop in a difficult political period, when LePage was closed.
The small boy’s fowler with a spanish boot-butt was created by using a number of elements of a royal bavarian wheellock pistol of the turn of the XVIth to the XVIIth century to be used at the Munique Court of the Elector of Bavaria.
The barrel is heavily chiseled with gold leave ground rather similar to the 1584 pistols. The reason is simple. Most gunmakers working in Lisbon by then were of German origin so their guns were born out with the same taste. What is very unusual on this marriage of elements of two different periods is that they did not only use the early barrel but also the ramrod pipes, the butt finial, the barrel tang and even a major part of the lockplate ".

[fernando]

A) Louis XIII wheellock pistol barrel remounted on a napoleonic boy’s flintlock fowler.
B) The muzzle portion of the same Louis XIII pistol barrel. In excelent condition.
C) The ramrod pipes of the Munique wheellock pistol barrel all heavily chiselled and the ground gilt, quite similar to the work of the 1584 pistol barrels. Only those hardly saw any use at all.


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[fernando]

Further material from Professor Daehnardt ...

D) The center view of the Munique Court wheellock pistol barrel.

E) The lower view of the same showing also the barrel tang of its use in Spain together with the original Munique School heavily chiseled barrel with gold leave ground.


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[fernando]

Yet another one ...


Details of the muzzle of the long wheellock pistol barrel made either by DANIEL SADELER or CASPAR SPÄT.


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