Austrian hunting rifle believed to have belonged to Napoleon, $120,000 (£94,500) at Alexander Historical Auctions.
On the second day of the January 18-19 Winter Autographs & Militaria Auction in Chesapeake City, Maryland, it took $120,000 (£94,500) against a guide of $100,000-150,000.
Austrian hunting rifle believed to have belonged to Napoleon, $120,000 (£94,500) at Alexander Historical Auctions.
The deluxe firearm, with its richly chiselled silver fittings and walnut stock carved with a boar’s head, was made in Austria by the Viennese master gunsmith Andreas Heueck in 1809 but received various modifications by Parisian gunsmiths.
Early in its life, it was converted to a carbine and engraved with the imperial emblem by Jean-Louis Deboubert c.1814, an apprentice under Napoleon’s gunsmith Nicolas-Noel Boutet. It was probably kept in the Schönbrunn Palace where the emperor loved to hunt.
Austrian hunting rifle believed to have belonged to Napoleon, $120,000 (£94,500) at Alexander Historical Auctions.
Later, c.1842, it was converted to a percussion mechanism by the Parisian armourer Bourdon when it was engraved and inlaid in gold with the inscription Hujeck in Wien 1809, Carbine de Napoleon. Mise A Piston by Bourdon Rue Du Rolle 19 A Paris.
