Original French Napoleonic 1810 Pattern Cuirassier Breastplate with Maker’s Stamp

Original Item. Only One Available. This is an outstanding French 1810 Pattern Cuirassier’s breastplate used during the Napoleonic Wars, and is the correct pattern for those used at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. 

The amor measures roughly 14 ⅛ x 13 ⅞ x 9” and retains much of the old silver paint. We are unsure if this is the original paint, but it is certainly very old. The front is adorned with 28 rivets with two additional protruded rivets in the middle for attachment of the back piece of the armor. Over the central lowest rivet is a stamp of two diagonally crossed lines with one vertical line, likely the logo used by the manufacturer. Along the left side between two rivets is the stamped number 31. There is scattered oxidation across the front of the armor. The indent at the bottom of the back is marked with roman numerals, XV  III XV, the meaning of which we are unsure of.

The back of the armor shows scattered remnants of the leather strap connecting all 28 rivets, which has heavily degraded over the years. Both of the central rivets have hexagonal nuts with a wire tied around both to hang the armor.

An outstanding piece of Napoleonic armor, ready for further research and display!

The French Invasion of Russia ( Campagne de Russie) began on 24 June 1812 when Napoleon's Grande Armée crossed the Neman River in an attempt to engage and defeat the Russian army. Napoleon hoped to compel Tsar Alexander I of Russia to cease trading with British merchants through proxies in an effort to pressure the United Kingdom to sue for peace. The official political aim of the campaign was to liberate Poland from the threat of Russia. Napoleon named the campaign the Second Polish War to curry favour with the Poles and provide a political pretence for his actions. The Grande Armée was a very large force, numbering nearly half a million men from several different nations. Through a series of long marches Napoleon pushed the army rapidly through Western Russia in an attempt to bring the Russian army to battle, winning a number of minor engagements and a major battle at Smolensk in August. Napoleon hoped the battle would mean an end of the march into Russia, but the Russian army slipped away from the engagement and continued to retreat into Russia, while leaving Smolensk to burn. Plans Napoleon had made to quarter at Smolensk were abandoned, and he pressed his army on after the Russians. The battles continued, but once the winter set in Napoleon's army was facing insurmountable odds that left it effectively shattered beyond repair. Napoleon fled from the field, it is said, dressed as a woman, and the army left to it's sad and miserable fate. Only around 27,000 were able to return after a mere six months of the Russian campaign, leaving behind upwards of 470,000 men of Napoleon's army dead or dying.

The campaign was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars. The reputation of Napoleon was severely shaken, and French hegemony in Europe was dramatically weakened. The Grande Armée, made up of French and allied invasion forces, was reduced to a fraction of its initial strength. These events triggered a major shift in European politics. France's ally Prussia, soon followed by Austria, broke their alliance with France and switched camps. This triggered the War of the Sixth Coalition. The Cuirassiers Heavy Cavalry Regiments used the largest men in France, recruited to serve in the greatest and noblest cavalry France has ever had. They fought with distinction at their last great conflict at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, and most of the Cuirassiers swords and armour in England today, very likely came from that field of conflict, the final and last battle commanded and thus lost, by Napoleon.