GRENADIER'S CAP MODEL 1808. Black fur-covered... Lot 138

GRENADIER'S CAP MODEL 1808. Black fur-covered shaft. Stamped copper eagle plate (traces of silvering to be cleaned). Scarlet cloth cap embroidered with a white flaming grenade. White passementerie cordon racket and floche. Tricolor wool pompom embroidered with an eagle under a white thread crown. Black leather and fabric inner cap. With a large scarlet plume. A.B.E. First Empire period. Has suffered from age, but rare. Provenance : -Former Forrest collection. -Former Rousselot collection, purchased at the Hôtel Drouot sale (Maître Péchon) of the Forrest collection, room no. 8, April 29, 1959. -Former Bentz collection. -Bourges (Maître Darmancier), sale May 25, 2013, expert B.Malvaux. -Jean Louis Noisiez Collection Provenance of the pompom: -Chasseur à cheval de la Garde impériale Jean-Marie Merme (1778-1865). -Former Lenoir collection. -Former Rousselot collection. -Former Bentz collection. -Jean Louis Noisiez Collection Historical background: Heirs to the Consular Guard, and before it to the Directoire Guard, the foot grenadiers of the Imperial Guard adopted the same urchin-hair cap. Prices ranged from 26 to 36 francs during the Empire. From 1811 onwards, the bonnets were made by the merchant furrier Aubineau. His widow continued to supply the bonnets after his death. The embroidered pomegranate on the cap was introduced in 1807. The bonnet plate is of the second model (copper), introduced around 1806-1807, and supplied from 1813 by Masson, 120 rue saint Martin. The pompom, known as the "pompon cocarde", is common to a number of Imperial Guard units, notably the horse-drawn chasseurs. From 1806 onwards, the center of the cockade was made of blue cloth embroidered with a crowned eagle in aurora wool, and was produced at the end of the Empire by Vautrin Lefèvre and Clavet, passementiers. The Imperial Guard infantry was a veritable elite within the Grande Armée, notably the 1st Regiment of Foot Grenadiers, a regiment integrated into the Old Guard. The soldiers making up this unit had more than five years' service, had distinguished themselves in at least two campaigns, and were all at least 1.76 m tall. On Sunday lunchtimes, the people of Paris flocked to the Carrousel parades, where they appeared in the presence of the Emperor. These grenadiers, who fought bravely from Austerlitz to Waterloo, via the Eylau cemetery, gave rise to the expression "les vieux de la vieille" (the old guard). Bibliography: Mention should be made of Mr. Bertrand Malvaux's research on this headdress (and the hairy bonnets of the Guard's foot grenadiers), notably in Tradition magazine (n°83).