Know What To Look For

The key to collecting Napoleonic militaria in the United States is knowing your subject. American antique dealers know little about French history and are quick to proclaim anything with an eagle or an "N" on it as Napoleonic. Many objects offered as relics of the First Empire are actually from the Second of Napoleon III (Bonaparte's nephew), and it is important for collectors to know the difference.

The Second Empire attempted to improve on the First, at least aesthetically, and an easily recognized distinction between the two can be found in the eagles that symbolized them. The Second Empire eagle is more majestic in appearance, with more finely detailed plumage on the chest. The First Empire eagle is less realistic and often more awkwardly posed. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the Second Empire eagle is its wings, which join the body at the bird's "shoulder"; the wings of First Empire eagles attach lower down, nearer the bird's "waist". Another distinguishing feature of the Second Empire type is the conical shape and nearly vertical position of the eagle's legs -- the legs on the First Empire eagles are rounded at the top, and most often tilted sharply to one side. If you are offered an eagle with high mounted wings and the tell-tale "traffic cone" legs, do not let yourself be persuaded that it is First Empire; it is not. Both periods used eagles with and without crowns, so the absence or presence of this feature is of no importance. It is important to note, however, that the Second Empire crown had eagles at the base of its branches, while the First Empire version had florettes.

Medals

Napoleon believed that awards were an important inspiration to his troops, and accordingly showered them with medals and decorations.

The most important of these, and the most sought after today, is the Legion of Honor. Since this decoration continued to be awarded by subsequent regimes, it is important to be able to tell the First Empire types from the ones that followed. First Empire crosses are generally divided into four successive types: 1) with no crown; 2) with a fixed crown; 3) with a swivel crown; and 4) with a swivel crown and balls on the points of the cross. The later model closest in appearance to the First Empire types was naturally that of the Second Empire, which is easily distinguished by the eagles on the crown. Legion of Honor collectors will be quick to point out further complications: that the centers and other parts are easily interchanged, that genuine First Empire crosses sometimes had their centers replaced so they could be worn during the Restoration, and that unscrupulous dealers have been known to mount Second Empire centers on Restoration crosses, which have a crown closer to the First Empire type.

Still, the most common error is to mistake a Second Empire cross for a First Empire one, and if you can avoid that trap, you can buy with a modest degree of confidence. Prices for First Empire legions of Honor vary with the grade and metal content. All chevalier crosses are solid silver, and many of the officer crosses are solid gold. The fourth model cross, with the balls on the points, is the most common and a chevalier's cross can usually be found for $500-$1500, depending on the amount of enamel damage. If you are offered a perfect specimen at the low end of that range, be wary. As in other aspects of life, if something appears too good to be true, it usually is.

The campaign medal for the Napoleonic wars is disappointing. Called the St. Helena Medal, it was not awarded until the Second Empire, by which time many of the most deserving recipients were long dead. Still, thousands were given out, and without a name on them they rarely bring more than $50.

A quick mention should be made of foreign decorations as well. Nearly all countries involved in the Napoleonic wars gave campaign medals to their participants, usually in silver for officers and bronze for other ranks. The British, curiously enough, instituted the Waterloo medal immediately after the battle for all ranks present, but waited until 1848 before awarding a similar medal (with bars on the ribbon for battles in which the recipient took part) to veterans of the Peninsula. The wonderful feature of British medals is that the name and regiment of the recipient were officially engraved on the rim. This makes it possible to acquire a Waterloo medal knowing that it was awarded to (and actually worn by) a man who charged with the Scots Greys or defended Hougoumont with the Guards. The medal rolls are still on file at the Public Records Office in England, allowing you to confirm the recipient.

Swords

General Officer's Sword, circa 1805. Typical of the non-regulation type favored by flamboyant officers of the Empire. The hilt is a copy of a Boutet design, the scabbard decorated with embossed battle scenes and the double thunderbolt of a General officer.

Swords are probably the most common Napoleonic relics. Fortunately, the type most sought after by beginning collectors is also the one most frequently encountered.

The Emperor's cuirassiers were the scourge of European battlefields and their long straight broadswords saw almost continuous service for over a century, which ensured that many survived. There were minor changes in design as the years went by, and new and old hilts, grips, and blades were combined and recombined as the needs of the service required. Blades made in 1812 were actually carried on the battlefields of 1914! This process of combining new and old parts means that an 1812 date on a blade is no indication that the other parts are of the same period.

The classic First Empire cuirassier sword can be distinguished by a number of features: the balls at the base of each branch of the basket, a smooth unchanneled base for the guard, and a plain cylindrical pommel cap with no rim around the top. The wire made only 11 turns around the grip, not 16 as on later patterns.

Whatever the model or style, all of the enlisted pattern swords used during the First Empire were set forth in regulations and rigorously inspected. The month, year and place of manufacture was etched along the spine of the blade (a practice that continues on French weapons to this day) and each part was stamped with the initial of the controller who supervised its manufacture. Virtually all First Empire blades were made at Klingenthal, and are so marked.

The light cavalry swords used during the First Empire were replaced with a new model in 1822, making them somewhat scarcer than the cuirassier type. First Empire enlisted scabbards were lined with wood, making both metal and leather versions very thick, almost round and often as much as an inch across; post-Empire scabbards were much thinner. The brass-hilted infantry sword remained in use for several decades afterward and was widely copied by other countries, so these must be approached with caution. Without an arsenal mark and date on the top of the blade, the sword you are thinking of buying is probably not French, however much you might want it to be.

The cavalry and infantry of the Imperial Guard carried their own distinctive models, and the few surviving examples are in great demand today, and correspondingly expensive. I saw an Imperial Guard light cavalry model for sale in Paris a few years ago for over $5000, a price usually reserved for deluxe officers' swords. The swords for the two carabinier regiments are even rarer than those of the Guard.

In contrast to the enlisted models, there were few regulation patterns for officers' swords. This was the golden age of the military cutler, and a bewildering variety of blades survive to this day. Still, there were customary patterns for different types of service, and most swords followed these general guidelines. Officer's blades during this period were nearly always decorated with blued and gilt designs for about a third of their length, a practice that was replaced with frost etching almost immediately afterwards. This means that if you come across a sword with the remains of this blued and gilt decoration, the chances are that it is a First Empire type, if not necessarily French. Similarly, officer's swords often had checkered walnut or ebony grips, a practice that also passed out of fashion with the abdication of Napoleon I, making a sword with these grips almost certainly a First Empire example. Light cavalry and infantry officer's swords are not uncommon and can sometimes be found at gun shows, although examples in really fine condition are harder to find.

The deluxe parade swords, of which many fine examples survive, represent the pinnacle of the sword cutler's art, and bring high prices on any market. Perhaps the most desirable are the "swords of honor" awarded to private soldiers and NCO's for heroism before the institution of the Legion of Honor in 1804. These were often made at Versailles under the direction of Nicholas Boutet, and are engraved with the name and regiment of the recipient.

The most common swords are not terribly expensive, as edged weapons go. Good enlisted models can often be found for $500-$1000, and officers' swords in average condition are not much more than that.

Firearms

Enlisted men's firearms, like swords, were well regulated and inspected. The standard infantry arm was the An 9 musket, a slightly simplified version of the 1777 model; the troops nicknamed it the "five foot clarinet." The cavalry carried carbines and a pair of pistols in the saddle holsters.

Pair of Officer's Holster Pistols. A matched pair with the curved grips characteristic of French pistols of the period.

All of these arms are available to collectors today, at prices ranging from $750 to $2000. Only a handful of Imperial Guard muskets, with their characteristic brass furniture, have survived and rarely appear on the collectors' market.

Mounted officers also carried a pair of pistols in their saddle holsters, but these, like their swords, were privately purchased and followed no regulation model. The workmanship on these matched pairs is often exquisite, yet they are often considerably less expensive than their glamorous cousins, the cased dueling pistols.

The ultimate firearms of the First Empire period were undoubtedly those produced by the Manufacture de Versailles, under the direction of Nicholas Boutet. Boutet has often been called the "Michelangelo of gunsmiths," because of the beauty of the decoration on his presentation arms, but a comparison to the famous violin maker Stradivarius might actually be more appropriate; his plainer pistols, while still elegant in their lines, have an astonishing balance and mechanical sophistication far exceeding other arms of the period.

Headdress

The variety of headdress worn by the officers and men of the Grande Armee was awesome to behold: shakos, brass and iron helmets, bonnets de police, bearskins, and colpacks, not to mention the famous cocked hat of the Emperor himself.

Officer;s Shako, Light Infantry, circa 1810. the sunburst plate was used by several regiments. Note the embossed pattern of the visor and the cockade woven with silver instead of white. The plume is original. This helmet has a "joined fingers" lining rather than the more common drawstring bag..

For this reason, these items have been sought by collectors for over a hundred years -- even the fakes qualify as genuine antiques. There is not enough space here to discuss Napoleonic headgear in any detail. Instead, I will limit my comments to some general advice.

Learn as much as you can not only about Napoleonic helmets and shakos, but about those of subsequent regimes as well. These are often passed off as First Empire pieces, and if you can recognize them, you are far less likely to be taken. For example, nearly all of the metal helmet crests made after 1815 were decorated with a series of inverted "teardrops" along the sides; these were never found on First Empire helmets. Study the small but important characteristics of First Empire construction: the "Bull Durham bag" lining, the embossed patterns on the leather visors, the weight and thickness of the brass stampings. Take advantage of every opportunity to hold pieces in your hand; by learning the "feel" of a piece -- its weight, texture, and flexibility -- you can educate your hands to distinguish what your eyes might overlook.

Uniforms and Insignia

Uniforms are almost impossible to find in decent condition, although they are not outrageously expensive when they do turn up. Accessories, such as epaulettes, are more common, but examples in really good condition are much rarer. Metal insignia, such as shako and cartridge box plates, buttons, gorgets, and belt plates are far more common. Most are stamped in brass or iron (not tin), but cartridge box and belt plates were usually cast.

Uniform of the Voltiguers of the Guard, circa 1811. Cloth items of any kind have a poor survival rate and rarely turn up on the collector's market. When they do, they are surprisingly inexpensive, often because moths have taken too heavy a toll.

Officer's items were much more finely detailed, and nearly always gilt (gold plated). The gilding process used at the time was called "fire-gilding": a mercury-gold mixture was applied to the object and the mercury burned off in a furnace, leaving a rich deposit of gold on the surface. Fire-gilding coated only the front of the object -- the back should be tarnished copper. If you find a piece that is gilt on both sides, it has been electroplated, a process unknown until the 1880's.

Buttons are fairly common, and can be an inexpensive form of collecting that takes up little space. Buttons of the period were generally flat, stamped in one piece with a loop soldered on the back. Officer's buttons were often stamped in thin metal (silver or gilt) mounted on a wood or bone backing. The hollow military button we are familiar with today did not become common until after the First Empire.

Gorgets were gilt crescents worn at the throat as a badge of rank by officers. French officers wore gorgets until the fall of the Second Empire in 1870. As a result, Second Empire gorgets are often advertised as First, but if one pays attention to the differences in the eagles as outlined above, the chances of being disappointed are greatly reduced.

Armor

Perhaps the most striking survivors of Napoleon's Grande Armee are the cuirasses and helmets of his heavy cavalry. A cuirass and helmet set is the dream of nearly every Napoleonic militaria collector. But care must be taken -- the cuirassiers and carabiniers of subsequent eras all wore similar equipment, and cuirasses and helmets of these later periods are often offered as First Empire pieces.

A Cuirassier Helmet and Cuirass, circa 1810. This shows the distinctive pot-bellied shape of the cuirass and the red wool covering the leather of the shoulder straps. The cuirass lining is a replacement.

A genuine cuirass of the Napoleonic period is much rarer than its successors, but it is easy to identify if one knows what to look for. First Empire cuirasses were distinctly pot-bellied in shape, had rivets all the way around (generally 28 of them, but the number may vary slightly), and narrower at the shoulders than at the waist when seen from the front. The cuirasses of later periods were more heroically shaped, with wide shoulders and narrow waist, and had only five rivets.

For Comparison: Second Empire Officer's Cuirass, circa 1850. Notice the wasp-waisted shape, the fancier officer's locking plates on the armor, and the metal visor peeking out from under the fur ofthe turban on the helmet.

Napoleon III's Guard Cuirassiers also had rivets all around, but their cuirasses were of the later wasp-waisted shape. First Empire cuirassier sets were secured by scale-covered leather straps over the shoulders, while the carabiniers had chains instead of scales. Chains were used on all cuirasses after 1816.

Copies and Fakes

Copies and fakes have been around a long time, so long, in fact, that some of them qualify as antiques in their own right. Copies are replicas made and sold as such, while fakes are made to deceive the buyer. The trouble with copies is that yesterday's copies often become today's fakes.

The best copies and fakes are extremely difficult to detect. In fact, the very best have never been detected at all, being accepted as genuine by beginner and expert alike.

There is, however, no point in being paranoid about the situation. A bit of familiarity with the copies currently on the market will invariably stand you in good stead, and as you gain experience in the marketplace, your instincts will become sharper.

The most common copies seen today are the cuirassier and light cavalry swords being made in Pakistan. They are very good copies, but most lack the inspector's proof marks found on original swords. A good trick is to sight down the length of the blade: if the surface is rippled and looks hand-forged, it was probably made in Pakistan. The original swords were ground on giant wheels, leaving slight irregularities but not a rippled finish.

Copies of officers' swords have been made for some years in Eastern Europe. Their appearance is often quite convincing, but they are usually of the fancier style with foliate designs on the hilts. Swords of this quality were invariably gilt, and while the gilding is often rubbed off genuine specimens, traces will always remain in the little recesses. The fakes are not gilded at all, and the lack of gilt in the little nooks and crannies is an important warning sign.

Some fine examples of reproduction headgear were made for the centennial in 1904, and with 90 years of age on them these can often fool the unwary collector. But if you have done your homework, you should be able to spot the differences in construction.

Shako plates are known to have been struck from original dies, but the ones you are most likely to encounter in this country are those which were made for Bremner Jackson, a leading collector in the 1960's. He planned to sell reproduction shakos, but never got farther than having the dies made and a few examples of each type struck. There was a wide variety, ranging from lancer czapka plates to shakos for the Guard and line regiments. The plates are lighter and thinner than the originals, and the 1812 models are easily distinguished by the "spaghetti" pattern of feathers on the eagle's chest.

Research

Books and museums are your best source for information. Do your homework and read everything you can on your subject. The surest way to be disappointed with your purchases is to rely on what the person trying to sell it tells you. A short "basic library" for the collector is listed at the end of this article. Take the time to build a photo reference file. The museums in France are excellent and allow photography without a flash. Comparing objects you hope to buy with photos you have taken in museums is the surest way to keep from getting "stung." Care and Cleaning

There are several approaches to care and cleaning of military antiques. The most conservative is to do no cleaning at all, leaving the pieces in the state in which they were found. The opposite end of the pole is to refinish everything to "as new" condition. I personally favor a moderate approach, restoring items to the condition in which they were kept by the person who wore them. This means cleaning and polishing the brass, but leaving untouched the wear and tear that comes from active service. Such damage often tells a tale in itself. Sword scabbards, for example, are frequently dented along the lower right side of the scabbard, where they banged against the owner's spurs. Taking these dents out would remove some of the history from the piece.

General Advice

As with most collectibles, the beginner is faced with two choices: you can buy only from respected and reputable dealers (who charge a premium for their expertise), or you can invest the time in becoming your own expert. It has been said that the real experts know how much they don't know, and this is particularly true in this country. The genuine experts are in France, where they have had years of hands-on experience examining original specimens, which are simply not that common over here. The current fashion is to be skeptical of anything that does not adhere to regulation patterns, but the fact remains that non-regulation examples are so abundant that this conservative approach overlooks many authentic pieces.

The pressures of wartime production led to many adaptive changes. I recently came across a French grenadier's cartridge box. Research showed it to be a Prussian cartridge box with a French cast grenade on the flap, clearly a captured piece put to good use by its captors. Its unusual appearance was an important part of its history.

In the end, the happiest collectors are the ones who have taken the time to read up on the subject and educate themselves in the marketplace. Not only can you avoid being cheated by ignorant or unscrupulous dealers, but you are in a far better position to appreciate the history of the pieces you acquire for your collection.

Basic Napoleonic Militaria Reference Library

About the author:

Sheperd Paine has been collecting militaria of the Napoleonic era for more than twenty years. He is a Director of the Napoleonic Society of America, a Fellow of the International Napoleonic Society, and a Fellow of the Company of Military Historians. Perhaps better known as an expert on military miniatures than as a collector, Paine has written four books on building models and dioramas.