A pair of Napoleon's pistols have sold for €1.69 million ($1.83 million) at the French auction house Osenat in Fontainebleau.
The firearms, one long-barreled, the other short, were made by the renowned Parisian gunmaker, Louis-Marin Gosset, and feature rich, gold-decorated Damascus barrels, engraved locks and hammers, and, on the short-barreled gun, a gold medallion with the profile of the Emperor and the Imperial Eagle.
Also sold with the pistols are their velvet-lined case and their accessories, including a powder horn, several tamping rods, and an intricately engraved bullet mold.
The true value of the pistols, however, is not in their decoration, but in their history: it is believed that Napoleon tried to commit suicide with them on the night of April 12-13, 1814, shortly after he signed the Treaty of Fontainebleau which forced him to abdicate. The Treaty was the culmination of a year of near-constant retreats that saw Napoleon rapidly lose his empire after his defeats in Russia and Spain.
"This pair of pistols represent the fall, the end, the abdication," said Jean-Pierre Osenat. "Because there is no Napoleonic legend without Saint Helena, without Elba. Without the abdication. Napoleon fell from the pinnacle of power." He further describes the pistols as "the image of Napoleon at his lowest point."
The Emperor's suicide attempt failed because his grand squire, Armand-Augustin-Louis de Caulaincourt, removed the guns' powder. He then tried to drink the poison he had been carrying since his retreat from Russia, but he vomited the weakened substance and survived. Napoleon was sent to the island of Elba, spent eleven months in exile, then returned the following year to fight the Hundred Days Campaign until his final defeat at Waterloo. He was exiled a second time, this time to the Island of Saint Helena, where he died six years later.
Before he left for Elba, Napoleon gave his pistols to Caulaincourt for his loyalty, and they were in his family until their recent sale.
Shortly before the auction, the guns were decreed national treasures by the French government. The classification places a ban on their export and gives the government 30 months to buy them back from the anonymous new owner.
