The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Bulletin

Louis Perrin
French, active 1823-65
Double-Barreled Percussion Shotgun
French (Paris), dated i854
Steel, walnut, and silver
Length overall, 465/8 in. ( 118.4 cm); length of barrel, 29 in.
(73.7 cm); caliber, .69 in. (I6.4 mm)
Inscribed (in Gothic letters on the barrel): PERRIN
A PARIS
BTE [brevete]
Purchase, Rogers Fund, The Sulzberger Foundation Inc. Gift,
Gifts of William H. Riggs, Bill and Joyce Anderson, Charles M.
Schott, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. de Forest, William B. Osgood
Field, Christian A. Zabriskie, Dr. Albert T. Weston, Henry Victor
Burgy, and Bequest of Alan Rutherfurd Stuyvesant, by exchange,
and The Collection of Giovanni P. Morosini, presented by his
daughter Giulia, John Stoneacre Ellis Collection, Gift of Mrs.
Ellis and Augustus Van Horne Ellis, and Bashford Dean Memorial
Collection, Funds from various donors, by exchange, I991
1991.5
At the Exposition Universelle of I 85 5 the arms makers of
Paris were awarded a special medal "for the perfection of their
products from the point of view of both artistic taste and
quality." Among the individuals cited for excellence was Louis
Perrin, a gunmaker relatively little known today.
The centerpiece of Perrin's exhibit was a "rich gun, for trophy
or panoply." That description most likely refers to this magnificent
double-barreled shotgun, one of the most ambitious
exhibition firearms known. The walnut stock is carved in the
round and is fitted with silver mounts of exquisite workmanship,
including the butt cap, cast and chased with a figure of
a Native American. The butt is pierced through, enclosing the
figure of a medieval hunter blowing a horn. Animals both real
and imaginary embellish the locks, cocks, and trigger guard.
The barrels, by the celebrated canonier Leopold Bernard (active
1832-67), are of browned Damascus steel. Perrin's name is
found on virtually all parts, suggesting that it was a work of
which he was inordinately proud.
This gun reflects the eclectic tastes of the period, particularly
the Gothic Revival. The Native American on the butt plate,
on the other hand, indicates a romantic fascination with the
indigenous peoples of the New World. Its location on the part
of the gun placed against the shoulder is highly impractical
and further demonstrates that Perrin conceived of the shotgun
as a work to be admired solely for its imagination and exquisite
workmanship.
SWP
Related references: Exposition des produits de l'industrie de toutes les
nations, I855: Catalogue officiel, 2nd ed., Paris, I855, p. 94; Exposition
Universelle de 855: Rapports du jury mixte international, Paris, I856,
vol. 2, p. 47.
z5