Nicolas Noël BOUTET (Maybe)
I
saw your nice cased pair of flintlock pistols marked NB in a circle !
The casing is a litlle bit later than the pistols, circa 1840s!
Your pistols are typicaly of the style and quality of NIcolas-Noël BOUTET in
Versailles, delicate engraving with animals and goddess, small safety behind the
hammer, nice carving on the grips !
But, they are not signed by the great artist ?
Why ?
What is sure is that the mark is the same one as found on the lockplates of the
Versailles carbines and published in the book La Manufacture de Versailles et
Nicolas-Noël Boutet from the Musée Lambinet.
So, to my eyes, 2 possibilities; or they were ordered by a customer who didn't
want a signature on them (some sabres by Boutet are also found not signed) or,
as we know that Liège supplied to Boutet spare parts like cannons to be mounted
in Versailles, the pistols could have been made in Liège, due to delays in
Versailles, improved and embellished by Boutet and just marked by the plant's
controller (like later Lepage who supplied pieces signed Fni par Lepage!).
Impossible to conclude !
What is sure is that it is not a spurious mark, made to sell them as Boutet
pistol as it would have been easier to signed them than letting make a fake seal
in hardened steel with a mark which is not common and known by today's
collectors !
Very nice pistols in superb condition !
Gilbert
