HISTORIC TWO-SHOT FLINTLOCK RIFLE, CONVERTED TO... Lot 33

HISTORIC TWO-SHOT FLINTLOCK RIFLE, CONVERTED TO PERCUSSION, PRESENTED BY PRINCE CAMILLE BORGHESE TO JOACHIM MURAT, THEN GRAND DUKE OF BERG. Round barrels in table, with thunder flats, richly engraved and gilded with urns, foliage, flowers, torches and signed "DE L'ETANG A VERSAILLES". Silver "grain d'orge" handlebars. Engraved breech tail. Lock plates signed "De l'Etang à Versailles - Arqueber du Prince Borghesse (sic)" and flat-bodied hammers engraved with foliage scrolls. Double trigger. Chased, cut and engraved silver fittings: Urn-shaped trigger guard, butt plate engraved with foliage and the attribution "A MON AMI J.MURAT DUC DE BERG EN SOUVENIR D'AUSTERLITZ C.BORGHESE". Walnut frame richly carved with semis of scales and foliage. Stock carved with the head of a fantastic animal, cheekpiece decorated with the profile of a dog's head. Barrel length: 80 cm. Total length: 120 cm. 1st title and large guarantee hallmarks (1798-1809). Goldsmith's hallmark of Jean Masson. B.E. (A repair to the front of the barrel). First Empire period. L'ETANG (de) Constant Prosper, harquebusier to His Highness Monseigneur the Prince Borghese, in Versailles. Residing at 28 rue de l'Orangerie, in 1810 he submitted a request for a platinum improvement suitable for igniting superoxygenated powder by shock. Historical background: MURAT and BORGHESE, both brothers-in-law of the Emperor, were close friends. In 1803, on Joachim Murat's advice, Prince Camille Borghese visited the First Consul in Paris. General Bonaparte, struck by the enthusiasm shown by the young prince, welcomed him with the greatest favor; and as it was already part of his plans to ally members of his family with the leading houses of Europe, he married the prince to his second sister, Pauline, widow of General Leclerc, who had died of yellow fever in Saint-Domingue. When hostilities with Austria resumed, he was first appointed squadron leader in the Imperial Guard, with whom he fought bravely at Austerlitz, then colonel of the 1st Carabinieri, and finally created French prince and duke of Guastalla on March 30, 1806. He accompanied Napoleon on the campaigns of Germany (1805), Prussia (1806) and Poland (1807), distinguishing himself by his courage in the campaign against the Prussians and Russians. Note: The rifle was flintlock when given to Murat, then converted to percussion by his descendants, due to the convenience of the new percussion firing system, around 1820-1830.