Pair Of Miniature Toy Pistols Of Prince Imperial Napoleon IV France Second Empire

Small necessary box containing a pair of chest pistols with the Emperor's number. Box covered in green leather decorated with a small iron and stamped with the number N under the imperial crown. Covered in blue velvet signed “LEFAURE PARIS”, shaped, with one compartment. It contains: -A pair of percussion chest pistols with round, rifled barrels. Chests finely engraved with foliage with retractable triggers. Ivory stocks. With its accessories: -Bullet mold, with branches, including one allowing the disassembly of the barrels. -Powder bulb with screw cap and capsule box in turned ivory. With an old label in pen annotated “Box of miniature pistols with forced bullets, ivory stocks having belonged to Napoleon IV Prince Imperiale as a child. Gift from Monsieur Bachon, his squire. » Box dimensions 9.5 x 16 x Ht 3 cm. Gun length: 9.5 cm. Key present. TBE Second Empire Period. Provenance: Pierre Renard Collection, Hôtel Drouot (Binoche and Godeau), March 7, 1990, n°30 then Jean Claude LACHNITT Collection Exhibitions: - “Prince’s Toys”, National Museum of the Châteaux of Malmaison and Bois-Préau, October 16, 2001- January 28, 2002, illustrated and reproduced in the exhibition catalog, n°161, p.172. Bibliography: Jean Claude LACHNITT and Philippe MUNCH, “The Imperial Prince, an heir”, Le Rubicon, reproduced on p. 20. Pierre Paul Frédéric BACHON (died in 1881) Equerry of Emperor Napoleon III, whom he has known since the July Monarchy. It is that of the Prince Imperial. It is he who is seen holding the Prince's pony in the photograph representing the Prince and Emperor Napoleon III observing him, by Pierson Mayer. Manufacturer LEFAURE gunsmith in Paris around 1852 - 1870