OFFICER'S BRIDLE BIT FROM THE 30th MOUNTED INFANTRY REGIMENT, model 1845, Second Republic. 5845-A6

OFFICER'S BRIDLE BIT OF THE 30th MOUNTED INFANTRY REGIMENT, model 1845, Second Republic. 5845-A6

Straight branches, brass bosses with the relief representation of the number "30."

France.
Second Republic.
Very good condition, needs cleaning.

PROVENANCE:
Former collection of Hippolyte Marie-Joseph Boivin (Guermantes, September 8, 1857, Bouvresse, June 19, 1912).
This 19th-century scholar assembled a collection of patriotic faience of great importance, which was exhibited multiple times in French museums.
Being a dedicated collector, Hippolyte Boivin gathered faience from Rouen, Marseille, Strasbourg, Delft, Nevers, enameled dial watches from the First Empire, ancient limbs, Norman and Picardian cupboards and clocks, chests and clocks from various eras, tapestries, rattles from all over France and abroad.
His grandson recounts that H. Boivin and his wife traveled from village to village, purchasing objects that seemed of interest to them. These acquisitions enriched his own collections and those of the Beauvais museum, of which he was the curator from 1889 to 1912. In this collecting venture, he also developed a passion for military memorabilia, mainly hats, brassware, bridle bits, and various historical mementos.
He had a gallery built in his garden to house his military collections, which would later be displayed in the "Boivin room" at the Dejean barracks in Amiens, destroyed during the Second World War. Hippolyte Boivin showed his preference for patriotic faience by reproducing, through drawing and watercolor, the pieces he had collected. Two reasons could explain this attraction: firstly, his family's exile from Champagne during the German invasion of 1870 may have given him a taste for patriotic and military objects; secondly, his maternal grandfather's profession, running a stoneware pottery factory in La Chapelle-aux-Pots, may have favored his interest in ceramics.

The objects comprising this enlightened amateur's collection were all acquired opportunistically, according to the encounters on the "field," especially given the period of collection: from the fall of Napoleon III until the eve of the Great War, their homogeneity was particularly well preserved.