CAVALRY BRIDLE BIT, model 1812, First Empire. 5815

CAVALRY BRIDLE BIT, model 1812, First Empire. 5815

Bridle bit of the so-called “pigeon-throated” shape. The barrels are almost straight, from the bottom of the pins to the heels, to provide better support on the bars. In its upper part, the branch forms a banquet with a round “eye of the banquet” opening. The lower end, or the bottom of the branch, ends with an opening in the shape of an upside-down heart, commonly called “the gargoyle” (it is intended to help buckle the rein holders when their rings are broken). The underside of the gargoyle is drilled with a hole intended to receive the rein holder reels furnished with their rings; the rear end of the gargoyle has a hole where a chain is attached.
Length of the branches 18 cm, width of the mouth 12.3 cm.
Entirely in filed wrought iron (originally tin-plated).

France.
First Empire.
Good state of conservation.

ORIGIN :
Former Hippolyte Marie-Joseph Boivin collection (Guermantes, September 8, 1857, Bouvresse June 19, 1912).
This scholar from the end of the 19th century constitutes a collection of patriotic earthenware of great importance, having been exhibited several times in French museums.
With a collector's temperament, Hippolyte Boivin brings together earthenware from Rouen, Marseille, Strasbourg, Delft, Nevers, watches with enameled dials from the First Empire, old members, cabinets and clocks from Normandy and Picardy, chests and clocks from various periods, tapestries, rattles from all over France and even abroad.
His grandson says that H. Boivin and his wife moved from village to village, buying all the objects that seemed of some interest to them. These acquisitions enriched his own collections and those of the Beauvais museum, of which he was curator from 1889 to 1912. In this collecting business, he was also passionate about military souvenirs, mainly headdresses, copperwork, bridle bits and various souvenirs. historical.
He had a gallery built in his garden to house his military collections which would later be presented in the “Boivin room” of the Dejean barracks (Amiens), destroyed during the Second World War. Hippolyte Boivin demonstrates his predilection for patriotic earthenware by reproducing the pieces he collected through drawing and watercolor. Two reasons can explain this attraction: firstly the exile of his family of Champagne origin during the German invasion of 1870 may have given him a taste for patriotic and military objects; then, the profession of his maternal grandfather, operating a stoneware pottery factory in La Chapelle-aux-Pots, perhaps encouraged his attraction to ceramics.

The objects constituting the collection of this enlightened amateur were therefore all purchased according to the opportunities encountered in the “field”, which is moreover given the period of collection: from the fall of Napoleon III and until the eve of the Great War, their homogeneity was particularly preserved.