3-000-302 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Prize won at the Tir National, Vincennes, [France], 1860. Rear view of trophy won by '...Lieutenant Le Poitevin, who made the highest score at the contest of the Normal School of Shooting...It is the work of M. Thénard...The central portion is a cup made from a solid bloodstone... The stem is formed of fascines, surrounded...by figures of men belonging to the various corps which were represented at the siege of Sebastopol. These little statuettes...[were] modelled from life, cast in silver, and afterwards chased and oxydised...At the top of each edge of the flutes of the cup is an eagle in gold holding scrolls on which are engraved the names of the battles and skirmishes which took place in the Crimea; and on the tablets and scrolls beneath are the names of all the French Generals who were killed or wounded during the siege. Between the figures spring up, as it were, from the bloody soil branches of laurel, exquisitely chased in gold. The cover, which is entirely of silver, represents the disorder of a breach at the moment of an assault...the whole being surmounted by the figure of a young Sous-Lieutenant of Infantry who first waved the French flag on the Malakoff...The cost of this magnificent prize is no less than 30,000 francs, or £1200'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.