(French Firearms, Regulation Models 1717-1836) Author: Jean Boudriot Pages: Two volumes, each approximately 200 pages Illustrations: These books are comprised almost exclusively of hundreds of fine technical line drawings showing nearly every aspect of each regulation weapon issued to the French armies of the period. Maps: None Footnotes: None Appendices: None Bibliography: None Index: None Publisher: This is a reprint by Editions du Portail, BP69, 38353 La Tour du Pin cedex, France. Phone: 011 33 4 74 97 45 63, fax: 011 33 4 74 97 62 88, E- mail: lehussard@aol.com Publication Date: 1997 Binding: Cloth (hardbound) ISBN: 2-86551-033-6 Price: 395 FF ($65) Summary: Boudriot's seminal work is considered the reference guide to French regulation weapons, and a must for any collector. The many line drawings are quite simply the best available and show all the markings and details of these firearms that one needs to look for. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, a young architect by the name of Jean Boudriot started a collection of regulation firearms and came across a "Year IX" cavalry musketoon. Apart from this simple notation, there was little more information that he could find about this piece. He discovered that the only study on firearms of this period had been written by a French army captain Bottet in 1900. Although this work was (and still is) quite valuable, it was not comprehensive enough to help Boudriot identify some of the items he collected. Additionally, there was no logical explanation why some pieces seemed so scarce and others more readily available. As Jean Boudriot set to his task, he received vital assistance from an acquaintance who gave him access to the archives of the artillery branch of service. Over the years, the French artillery had been responsible for determining which weapons should be designed and accepted. As Boudriot extended his search, he came across many other unexplored sources from the old arsenals of Charleville, Saint-Etienne, Tulle, etc. Jean Boudriot decided to compile this information and publish it "privately" — selling it as notebooks in the well-known Pierre Petitot militaria bookstore in Paris. Boudriot applied the same skills he used in his professional architectural work to his book, executing numerous, finely detailed line drawings, illustrating every aspect of each weapon he studied. The resulting massive work was published in four notebooks covering virtually all regulation weapons from 1717 to 1918. These four notebooks were supplemented by a fifth dealing with American weapons imported by the French during the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. Boudriot's tomes have become the standard reference book on French firearms. The original notebooks are long out of print, and a second printing was done in the late 1970s which quickly sold out. Happily, these four books have been re-released by the publishing division of the French antique weapons mail- order house Le Hussard. Obviously, the topic is a niche one and may be of primary interest to the collector who can read French. However, the number and quality of illustrations is such that a non-French reader should also be able to identify the various weapons. Boudriot supplemented his technical illustrations with historical insight and production data. A good portion of the two volumes is devoted to the French Revolution and Napoleonic period. The part dedicated to the Revolution has been found to be one of the weaker areas of Jean Boudriot's work. The chaos that existed during that time resulted in an incredible variety of weapons and Boudriot did his best to organize and classify the most commonly found weapons. The 1777 and An IX system firearms get the most attention as these were the weapons that were carried throughout the Napoleonic Wars and their evolution is outlined expertly. The reader may wonder if a similar work exists for French edged weapons of the period. Indeed, up until the 1970s a series of plates bound as "notebooks" were published by M. Christian Aries. These plates, also available from Le Hussard, attempted to cover the entire production of French edged weapons and defensive armor from the late 17th Century to the present day. Unfortunately, this work is not organized by period, but rather by "families of design" and therefore does not lend itself to easy research for someone interested only in the Napoleonic era! More Napoleonic Library Book News 1998 On the Fields of Glory Les Uniformes des Guerres Napoleoniennes Les Epogee Napoleonienne Napoleon Les Campagne de Russie 1812 Du Silex au Piston Armes a Feu Francaises Modeles Reglementaires 1717-1836 Back to Table of Contents -- Napoleon #12 Back to Napoleon List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Emperor's Press. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. The full text and graphics from other military history magazines and gaming magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com