Edmé REGNIER L'Aîné
System
weapon, rare lantern pistol by Regnier, 144 mm iron barrel with sides then
round, blunderbuss and rimmed, with a light on the left, marked on the upper
side "Pistolet de Voyage de M. Regnier".
Barrel
tail with detachment (sectioned), weapon comprising two 120 mm flintlocks of the
1777 type, round brass bassinet and espalet hammer, bassinet cover with
turnbacks.
The right
plate was used to light the wick of a lamp placed on the right of the pistol
(part of the screwed attachment remains under the bassinet), the left plate
ensuring the firing of the pistol, the single trigger serving both plates.
A safety
system placed behind the left hammer allows it to be held when the trigger is
pulled to serve the right plate and light the lamp.
Half-Charolais trigger guard, walnut stock with polished iron fittings, iron
nail head rod.
Total
length 295 mm, France late 18th/early 19th century.
(Edmée
Regnier l'Ainé, 1751-1825, inspector of pistol production under the Safety
Committee and instigator of the AN IX system.
He was
the first director of the Artillery Museum installed in the cloister of the
Church of St Thomas Aquinas in Paris.
Regnier
had made a specialty of home defense weapons, he invented different types of
weapons including a "trap pistol against chicken thieves" as well as this
lantern pistol.
The
operating principle was to light the lantern when the presence of a prowler was
suspected and if the presence was confirmed, the second plate allowed firing in
full light) Provenance: Sarraute family - City of Carcassonne
HM
Edmé Regnier L'Aîné
French All-Steel Flintlock Trap Pistol by Regnier, Early 19th Century
The plain barrel with threaded steel ramrod engaging with a ring mount on the right, box-lock action with stamped maker's name on one side, thumbpiece safety-catch, trigger with roller working against a sprung curved bar operating through the trigger-guard via a tapering bar beneath the barrel which is hooked at the end for attachment to a trip-wire, rounded butt carrying a toothed clamp with wing-headed screw.
Footnote:
For an almost identical example by the same maker and described as a 'chicken thief gun', see Lewis Winant, Firearms Curiosa, pp. 112 and 114, fig. 114
The signature on this pistol is probably that of Edmé Regnier L'Aîné, who was born in Semur-en-Auxois in 1751 and died in Paris in 1825.
He became the inspector of hand firearms production under the Committee of Safety and the instigator of the An IX system.
Subsequently he was appointed the first Director of the Musée d'Artillerie in the cloister of the Church of Saint Thomas d'Asquin, Paris.
He was probably a descendant of the Reyniers (of Dutch origin)
