FLOAT 100 · Memorabilia · No. 47
Napoleon's Gosset Flintlock Pistols
Napoleon is said to have meant to kill himself with this cased pair of gold-inlaid pistols at Fontainebleau in April 1814, and he gave them to the loyal friend who had quietly removed their powder.
- Year
- c.1814
- Maker
- Napoleon Bonaparte / gunsmith Louis-Marin Gosset
- By price in memorabilia
- 46 of 100
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Create a free account- Maker
- Louis-Marin Gosset, Paris gunmaker active in the early 19th century; barrels and locks signed "Gosset Fecit"
- What it is
- A burr walnut case holding two flintlock pistols numbered 1 and 2, with accessories including a powder horn, tamping rods and a bullet mold
- Pistols
- Each 38.5 cm long with a 23.5 cm barrel; No. 1 short stock, 12.5 mm caliber; No. 2 long stock, 13 mm caliber
- Decoration
- Gold inlay, carved ebony insets, and a profile bust of Napoleon on pistol No. 1
- Date made
- Unknown; the French state's experts say the date and circumstances of creation have not been established
- The night
- April 12-13, 1814, at the Château de Fontainebleau, after his first abdication
- Given to
- General Armand de Caulaincourt, Duke of Vicenza (1773-1827), his grand equerry; kept by his descendants until 2024
- Status
- Declared a French national treasure in July 2024; export refused
- Highest reported price
- €1.69 million (about $1.83 million), realized at auction in Fontainebleau, July 7, 2024
Fontainebleau, April 1814
After the coalition victory at Leipzig in October 1813, the allied armies set off for France on December 15. Napoleon won a string of battles with an army of young recruits, at Champaubert, Montmirail and Montereau, but Paris fell after a day of fighting while he waited at Fontainebleau. Sources give the capitulation as March 30 or March 31, 1814.
On April 3 the Senate declared him deposed. The next day ended with a conditional abdication at Fontainebleau. The treaty settling his fate was concluded in Paris on April 6 by Marshals Ney and Macdonald and General Caulaincourt with the ministers of Austria, Russia and Prussia, and Napoleon signed it on April 11. Under it he abdicated unconditionally and agreed to live on the island of Elba as its sovereign. The treaty was ratified on April 14.
On April 20 he said goodbye to the Imperial Guard in the Cour du Cheval-Blanc, in front of the great staircase of the château. "Soldiers of my Old Guard, I bid you farewell," he began.
The pistols that were not loaded
According to Caulaincourt's account as relayed by the sellers, Napoleon had been talking for days about how to kill himself, and he had repeatedly examined his pistols. He is said to have wanted to use them on the night of April 12, 1814. His grand equerry, Armand de Caulaincourt, had removed the powder. Napoleon instead took poison and survived.
Right after the attempt, in the night of April 12 to 13, Napoleon gave the case of pistols to Caulaincourt, one of the few people close to him who had stayed loyal. One French report on the sale says that he gave Caulaincourt his saber and a cameo portrait at the same time; a saber with the same family provenance, known as the sabre des Empereurs, is now at the Château de Fontainebleau.
Caulaincourt left the case to his eldest son and recorded the circumstances in doing so. It stayed with his descendants for more than two centuries.
Gosset's showpiece
Louis-Marin Gosset signed the pistols "Gosset Fecit" on the barrels and inside the lockplates. Pistol No. 1 has a short stock and a twist-Damascus barrel; No. 2 has a long stock and straight Damascus. Their calibers differ slightly, 12.5 and 13 millimeters, and the case includes a polished, engraved steel bullet mold made to cast balls for both.
The tiger-striped walnut stocks carry carved ebony insets, engraved steel fittings and abundant gold inlay. The menagerie is crowded: gods, a centaur, a devil, a mermaid, cherubs and satyrs alongside a squirrel, a swan, dragons, an elephant, a crayfish, lions, a horse, an insect, goats, a crocodile, fish, owls and a llama beneath a tree. On the fore-end of pistol No. 1 is Napoleon's bust in profile, in the classical style, beneath the heraldic star of the Buonaparte family.
The burr walnut case is fitted to hold the pistols and accessories, with two lidded compartments in the corners. Inside the lid, green velvet is embroidered with oak leaves and bees around a large "N" beneath a crown set with nine stars.
No one knows exactly when or why Napoleon came to own the set. France's national treasures commission suggested it might have been a gift, a commission, or, given its virtuosity, a masterpiece Gosset made to win the coveted title of gunmaker to the Emperor, a title held only by Jean Le Page.
A national treasure goes under the hammer
In 2024 the family consigned the case to an auction in Fontainebleau, in a building about 300 meters from the château where the events of April 1814 took place. An export certificate had been requested on May 29, 2024. France's advisory commission on national treasures met on June 28 and found that the set had major importance for the nation's history and art; its opinion recommending refusal of the export certificate was published in the Journal officiel on July 6, the day before the sale.
On July 7, 2024, the pistols sold for €1.69 million, about $1.83 million, against an estimate of €1.2 million to €1.5 million. The buyer was not named. As a national treasure the set can leave France only temporarily, and the state has 30 months to make the new owner a purchase offer, which the owner may refuse.
The auctioneer described the case as the image of Napoleon at his lowest point: "It therefore represents the end, the image of the fall." Napoleon returned from Elba in 1815, was defeated at Waterloo, and died in 1821 in exile on St. Helena.
Timeline
Coalition armies defeat Napoleon at Leipzig, the Battle of the Nations.
The allied armies set off for France.
Paris falls to the coalition (one source gives March 30) while Napoleon waits at Fontainebleau.
The Senate declares Napoleon deposed.
The Treaty of Fontainebleau is concluded in Paris; the French state's experts date his first abdication to this day.
Napoleon signs the treaty and abdicates unconditionally.
In the night of April 12-13 he attempts suicide; Caulaincourt has unloaded the pistols, and Napoleon takes poison and survives.
Napoleon gives the cased pistols to Caulaincourt.
Farewell to the Old Guard in the Cour du Cheval-Blanc.
Napoleon is exiled to Elba.
Caulaincourt dies; the case passes to his eldest son and stays in the family.
An export certificate is requested for the case.
France's national treasures commission meets and backs refusing export.
The commission's opinion is published in the Journal officiel.
Sold at auction in Fontainebleau for €1.69 million, about $1.83 million.
The world in 1814
Louis XVIII is invited to take the restored French throne.
Louis XVIII issues the Charter of 1814, a written constitution.
George Stephenson successfully tests his first locomotive, Blücher, in England.
British troops burn the U.S. Capitol and the White House in Washington.
The British bombard Fort McHenry at Baltimore, inspiring Francis Scott Key's poem that became "The Star-Spangled Banner."
A vat of porter bursts at a London brewery, flooding streets and killing 8 people.
The Congress of Vienna formally opens to redraw Europe after the Napoleonic Wars.
The Treaty of Ghent is signed, formally ending the War of 1812.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Jul 7, 2024 | $1,830,000 | Sold at auction€1.69 million at auction in Fontainebleau for the cased pair with accessories, sold as one set; estimate €1.2-1.5 million. |
A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.
By reference price, Napoleon's Gosset Flintlock Pistols is number 46 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (47 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- The two pistols are a pair but not twins: one has a short stock and the other a long one, and their calibers differ by half a millimeter.
- Among the gold-inlaid creatures on the stocks is a llama standing under a tree.
- The official opinion naming the pistols a national treasure was published in France's Journal officiel the day before they went to auction.
- They sold about 300 meters from the château where Napoleon is said to have meant to use them.
- Caulaincourt, who received the pistols, was one of the men who negotiated the treaty that ended Napoleon's reign.
- France has 30 months from a national treasure designation to make the owner an offer, and the owner can say no.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 1, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026