Military History | Design for a Triple-Barrelled Cannon, pen and ink, c.1703-5

Military History.

Design for a French triple-barrelled cannon with carriage

the upper barrel ornamented with lettering on scrollwork (“Les trois juges”, “ultima ratio regum”, and “Louis Auguste duc du Maine”), the arms of the Duc du Maine, and royal emblems of Louis XIV, the carriage also ornamented with the cannon’s name (“Les trois juges”), the design providing multiple views (perspective view, aerial view, side view, section views showing the barrels), with a scale bar, highly detailed and accurate drawings in ink, on a single sheet (430 x 600mm, with a rod of Basel watermark), [c.1703-5], marginal nicks and tears neatly repaired

A RARE DESIGN FOR AN INNOVATIVE FRENCH CANNON FROM THE WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. This triple-barrelled cannon, cast as a single unit, was invented by an Italian monk, Giacomo Maria Figari, at the turn of the 18^th century. The first such cannon was cast at the Paris Arsenal. In November 1703 this prototype was successfully demonstrated before the Duc du Maine, the natural son of Louis XIV who was the Grand Maître de l'Artillerie, following which up to 50 further cannon were commissioned (these were cast at Douai). The cannon came into service for the 1705 campaign season in the War of the Spanish Succession, and several examples were captured by the British at the Battle of Ramilles the following year: “The French brought this year among their train three-bore field-pieces; a new invention, of which they were so careful, for fear of a discovery, that they had them cased over, and never exposed to view, until they came to the Plain of Ramillies, the scene of this bloody engagement, where they [...] fled, with great precipitation, like frighted sheep” (Captain Peter Drake, Memoirs (1960), p.78). Two of these triple-barrelled cannons remain in the collection of the Royal Armouries, Leeds (item XIX.51, “Les Trois Foudres”, and item XIX.52, “Les Volcans”), and a further two, captured at the Battle of Malplaquet (September 11, 1709), are in the collection of the Royal Artillery.

Sotheby's is grateful for the assistance of Richard Noyce, Curator of Artillery at the Royal Armouries, for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

LITERATURE:

G. Daniel, Histoire de la Milice Francoise (1721), pp.451-453; Howard Blackmore, The Armour of the Tower of London: Vol.1 Ordnance (1976), pp.19, 117-18; https://royalarmouries.org/collection/object/object-25729