Fusil de chasse d'officier français

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dauph197

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Fusil de chasse d'officier français

Hi there,

If it's the place where the blackpowder and the antique guns lovers are, well, this is right here I have to present you one of my four French made flintlock muskets.

The musket you're about to see is a weapon made for hunting small games in the European territory. On the buttplate tang, there is a date. Can be 1713 or 1715... hard to say with assurance. The barrel has been restored for almost a quarter of its length. It is heavily decorated with an engraved hunting scene on the lock and lots of brass parts.

The caliber is very small comparing the military weapons. It is made to take balls of ''28 balles à la livre'', this mean they were making 28 balls in one pound of lead. This is very typical of all the 18th Cent. flintlock musket made in France.

The name on the lock is suspected to be ''LANGUEDOC A PARIS''. This make sense because according to Jean-Jacques Guigné's book, ''Le Qui est qui de l'arme en France'' which can be translate by ''The who is who of the weapon in France'', at page 242 of the first Tome, only one name fits the date written on the buttplate tang.

- Jean-Laurent le Languedoc - King's gunmaker at Paris from 1680 to 1722 but no at the Louvre Galeries. He was one of the King's flintlock makers by de Saxe and he was responsible of reviewing the 1717 standard model with Regnier ''dit le Hollandais'', on Jan. 4, 1717.Name seen on a beautiful hunting gun in the Musée de l'Armée in Paris.

On the side plate, there is a coat of arms. This coat of arms is the one that match the description in the book of ''Armorial du Canada Français'' which can be translate by ''French Canadian Coat of Arms Catalog''. The coat of arms belongs to the De Vassal De Monviel family, like it is said on page 122.

Then, in the Jean-Yves Bronze's book, ''Les morts de la Guerre de Sept Ans au cimetière de l'Hôpital-Général de Québec'', which can be translate by ''the dead soldiers of the Seven Years War at the Hôpital-Général de Québec's cemetery'', page 145, the only De Vassal De Monviel living in New France at this time is the Chevalier Germain François Bonaventure De Vassal De Monviel, who came here as Company Commander in the Béarn Regiment with the rank of Captain.

He died during the siege of Quebec in 1760 when a bomb fell on his position. He was deadly injured and passed away few days after his injuries.

So, is that flintlock was his flintlock?! Good question without definitive answer. The coincidences are really interesting and chances are that I have his weapon today. I'll let you enjoy this piece of art, whatever the barrel has been restored.

Post any comments, this is the reason of why I'm showing you this musket.

Have a nice one,

Martin























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tokguy,

I have to honestly say that it is the first time I realize the meaning of ''gauge''!! So yes, "28 balles à la livre" is in fact 28 gauge!! I've just learn something...
 
Very nice, indeed. Why not showing your three others? :)

The 28 gauge (Livre Française) was the regulatory caliber for the civilian firearms under the French Regime, but it is presumed that there might also have been 18 gauges (Livre Française) brang up here for the milicians. The usual (standard) huting barrels were trois pieds neuf pouces (pieds et pouce Français) before 1716 and trois pieds six pouces subsequently, with some presumably sent being trois pieds dix pouces in 1731.

The lock was most likely made at Tulle and used by the gunsmith to make the Fusil de Chasse for his fortunates customers.
From the outside, the lock is almost identical to a Tulle Mdle de 1716.

There is an historian in Saguenay, Russel Bouchard, who made a lot of researches on the French Regime guns and he wrote several books and studies on the matter. Unfortunately, while still alive, somewhat lost interest in old guns...
 
What a beautiful example of the craftsmanship from the time. It matters not the country of origin in these cases-it is an art form in very high measure. Thank you for sharing with this group of enthusiasts.
 
You are right, Russel Bouchard (now known under the first name of Éléonaure... yes, he's a "she" today!) did a nice work about flintlock muskets but almost exclusively about those made at Tulle. Today, his studies should be use as a very good base to get deeper in the subject.

The lock was surely not made in Tulle. All the locksmiths were using same model to cast their locks. That's the reason why they look so similar in shape. The 28 gauge caliber was in fact the civilian caliber and the 18 gauge was made for military purposes. At this time, bigger caliber was considered more powerful. The reason why the New France milicians were issued 18 gauge barrels was because they were fighting with the regular troops, so, to avoid any problem when delivering ammo on the battlefield, all the fighters were using same bore weapons.

I will show the three others for sure. I have two 1728 and one fusil de Tulle. But you know... one thing at a time!! ;-)

Martin
 
I talked to (her) not too long ago and (she) told me he (she) should work again on guns, but (she) was quite more into working on the history of ther region for now...

You must already know it, some gunsmiths did make their own, others just bought reglementary locks from the "Armurie(s) du Roy" to build their guns. Anyhow, it's definitely a lock made on a reglementary pattern.

If it can help you quest, Vassal de Mouviel's son, Francois(-Xavier, born 4/11/1759) also is an important figure of the French-Canadian "Noblesse" and was active in the colonial military in 1776 and 1812 to 1841. François had three daughters and one son. His son, Stanislas, married Felicité Gill, the métis daughter of a "Grand Chef Abenaki" in Odanak. I don't know if himself had children.
Francois have his own Canadian Biography http://www.biographi.ca/fr/bio/vassal_de_monviel_francois_7F.html

You're a very lucky (or patient) guy to have those french colonial military guns, even museums are paining to get them....
 
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I would say I'm a lucky guy!! ;-)

And by the way, thanks for the info about his son François. I knew a bit about him. I tried to find in the archives something about estate from both, the father and son, to see a mention about this fusil. Nothing found...

I will post some more info this evening because right now, with my iPhone it is painful. My English is bad enough, I have to minimize the pain for those who take time to read me. I'm always doing mistakes with the Iphone!!

Martin
 
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28 gauge dresses out to 63mm. 62mm is the rough standard in hunting calibres on the continent at the time. Jager rifles are 62mm. So that would be about right.
 
So, here are some info about the fusil. This is not validated yet but highly plausible following the next deduction. Before going any further, this musket might have been imported by a weapon dealer and might never have been own by François Germain-Bonaventure De Vassal De Monviel.

So, if the gun was in fact his property, before knowing that the musket has been restored, the length of the fusil was bugging me. It is vry short comparing to those standard military muskets. Also, the date written on the buttplate tang does not fit with the owner. François Germain-Bonaventure De Vassal De Monviel was commissioned with the rank of Lieutenant 1744 at the age of 24. This mean the 1715 engraved on the buttplate does not match with his birthday year or whatever we try to find about it. However, in the De Vassal family genealogy, I found out that it was a very powerful family in the Southern part of France. All the males were colonels, generals or cardinals. His father himself was captain in the Régiment de Noaille which was a cavalry regiment. So, I was thinking the fusil was short to be used when horse riding... could be the ''mousqueton'' ancestor. Since I discovered the musket was restored, there is less chance to have found the truth but still very interesting to imagine it like this. At the end, his father gave him the musket when he left for the New World. François Germain-Bonaventure De Vassal De Monviel's son was born in 1758. This same year, his father died on a European battlefield. François Germain-Bonaventure De Vassal De Monviel died the next year and he is buried in the Hôpital-Général de Québec where his name in engraved on a black stone. I went there, dressed in my 18th Century uniform and it was like weird... François Germain-Bonaventure De Vassal De Monviel was a Chevalier de l'Ordre de St-Louis.

This end the nice story of this musket which, at the first view, I refused to buy because it was not a military fusil. When I asked for a picture of the coat of arms and started to search about it, I discovered an amazing story. I think, this kind of find may happen once in a lifetime. In fact, someone can wait an entire life without having this chance. That's the reason why I consider myself lucky. I would say that my gut feeling served me well on this one. Now... let see if I can do the same for a nice Ross rifle?! ;-)

Thanks for all you comments, they are all interesting to read.

Martin
 
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