Belt Plate From The King's Second Company Of Musketeers, Former Monarchy. 27475

BELT PLATE OF THE KING'S SECOND COMPANY OF MUSKETEERS, Former Monarchy (circa 1770-1775). 27475 Silver-plated brass tray, rectangular shape, height 61 mm, width 81 mm. In the center, a pattern in cast and gilded brass represents the cross of the second company ending with fleurs-de-lys and angled with five flames in each corner, height 48 mm, width 48 mm. Reverse with hook (height 12 mm, width 18 mm) and trigger guard (height 61 mm, diameter 4 mm). Weight 115 grams. France. Former Monarchy, 1770-1775. Good condition, the two REAR barbs are missing. PROVENANCE: Former collection of Doctor Henri Polaillon was born in 1875 in Paris, the only son of a family of doctors and surgeons from Lyon. His father, Benjamin Polaillon, was a surgeon in Paris hospitals and a member of the Academy of Medicine. Doctor of medicine from the Faculty of Paris, the subject of his first thesis in 1901 testifies to his interest in natural sciences: “Contribution to the study of the natural and medical history of mosquitoes”. He was also a full member of the Zoological Society of Paris in 1902. In 1910 he married Louise Mollier-Carroz, the granddaughter of Professor Félix Guyon, the famous founder of modern urology. After the Great War, he devoted himself entirely to his passion as a collector, which is illustrated by his aesthetic library with its many curiosities: literature, botany, natural sciences, medicine, numismatics and finally weapons and souvenirs from the First Empire. “The kind and erudite collector that was Dr. Polaillon, whose opinions were authoritative in matters of bladed weapons” (La Sabretache dixit), died in 1941. NOTE: This model is one of the most popular belt plates rare from the French army, only two authentic examples are known according to my archives, the plate described here, and another completely identical belonging to the former Jean and Raoul Brunon collections, which became collections of the Army Museum in 1966, currently exhibited at the Château de l'Empéri in Salon de Provence in the Ancienne Monarchie rooms.