Shako Of Staff Officer Of The 31st National Guard Battalion, Model 1852

SHAKO OF OFFICER OF THE STAFF OF THE 31st BATTALION OF THE NATIONAL GUARD, MODEL 1852, SECOND EMPIRE. Mercury-gilded brass stamped plaque, model 1852, representing an uncrowned eagle looking to its right, holding the sparkling Jupiter spindle in its talons, with a bomb cut out of the number "31" in the center and an oak branch in the background and laurel. Plate H 13.1 cm, width 14 cm. Body covered with a sleeve of fine cloth, dyed dark blue, bordered at the top of a silver braid (width 2.8 cm), and with a silver cord on each side. Bourdalou in black patent leather. Black waxed cap (diameter 12.5 cm), black waxed visor on the top and green on the inside (4 cm wide in its center). Metal cockade stamped with a radiant sun painted in tricolor (diameter 5.6 cm). Double pompom in tricolor wool (H 8.5 cm). Interior of the carcass lined with red wallpaper. Inner cap in black waxed sheepskin cut in wolf teeth. Shako complete with his chin strap in black patent leather. Very good condition, some moth holes in the rear part, two of which are larger (3x1.2 cm - 7 mmx1.2 cm), oxidized silver braid. France. Second Empire. PROVENANCE: Former Hippolyte Marie-Joseph Boivin collection (Guermantes, September 8, 1857, Bouvresse June 19, 1912). This scholar from the end of the 19th century constitutes a collection of patriotic earthenware of great importance, having been exhibited on several occasions in French museums. With a collector's temperament, Hippolyte Boivin brings together earthenware from Rouen, Marseille, Strasbourg, Delft, Nevers, watches with enameled dials from the First Empire, old members, cabinets and clocks from Normandy and Picardy, chests and clocks from various eras, tapestries, rattles from all over France and even from abroad. His grandson recounts that H. Boivin and his wife traveled from village to village, buying all the objects which seemed to them of a certain interest. These acquisitions enrich his own collections and those of the Beauvais museum, of which he was the curator from 1889 to 1912. In this collection business, he was also passionate about military memorabilia, mainly hairstyles, brassware, bridle bits and various souvenirs. historical. He had a gallery fitted out in his garden to house his military collections, which would later be presented in the “Boivin room” of the Dejean barracks (Amiens), destroyed during the Second World War. Hippolyte Boivin manifests his predilection for patriotic earthenware by reproducing by drawing and watercolor the pieces he has collected. Two reasons can explain this attraction: first, the exile of his family of Champagne origin during the German invasion of 1870, may have given him a taste for patriotic and military objects; then, the profession of his maternal grandfather, operating a stoneware pottery factory in La Chapelle-aux-Pots, perhaps fostered his attraction to ceramics. The objects constituting the collection of this enlightened enthusiast were therefore all purchased according to the opportunities encountered in the “field”, which moreover is given the period of collection: from the fall of Napoleon III until the eve of the Great War, their homogeneity has been particularly preserved.