INFANTRY LIGHT OFFICER'S GORGET, model 1814, First Restoration. 5745

OFFICER'S INFANTRY LIGHT COL.NECKPIECE, 1814 model, First Restoration. 5745

18th-century brass neckpiece with a centrally placed gilt brass motif dating from the 1814 model, depicting a hunting horn with the Arms of France surmounted by the royal crown, resting on a branch of oak and laurel.

Very good condition (drilled plate, posterior cord).

France.

First Restoration.

PROVENANCE:
Former collection of Hippolyte Marie-Joseph Boivin (Guermantes, September 8, 1857, Bouvresse, June 19, 1912).
This erudite individual from the late 19th century amassed a collection of highly significant patriotic ceramics, which were exhibited multiple times in French museums.
With a collector's temperament, Hippolyte Boivin gathered faience from Rouen, Marseille, Strasbourg, Delft, Nevers, enamel dial watches from the First Empire, antique limbs, Normandy and Picardy cabinets and clocks, chests, and clocks from various periods, tapestries, and rattles from all over France and even abroad.
His grandson recounts that H. Boivin and his wife traveled from village to village, buying all items they found of interest. These acquisitions enriched his own collections and those of the Beauvais museum where he served as curator from 1889 to 1912. Engrossed in collecting, he also developed a passion for military memorabilia, particularly headgear, brassware, bridle bits, and various historical mementos.
He had a gallery built in his garden to house his military collections, which would later be exhibited in the "Boivin Hall" at Dejean Barracks (Amiens), destroyed during World War II. Hippolyte Boivin showed a preference for patriotic faience by reproducing through drawing and watercolor the pieces he had collected. Two factors may explain this attraction: firstly, his family's exile from Champagne during the 1870 German invasion may have instilled in him a taste for patriotic and military items; secondly, the profession of his maternal grandfather, who operated a stoneware pottery factory in La Chapelle-aux-Pots, may have influenced his fondness for ceramics.

All objects comprising this discerning collector's collection were acquired opportunistically, "in the field," during the collection period: from the fall of Napoleon III until the eve of the Great War, maintaining a notable homogeneity.