UNIFORMS OF FRENCH RESTORATION 1814-1830

In this third and last volume we present all the other images of French Restoration Army present in usual collection, always realized by several famous French artist of XIX cent. The first part are dedicated to the finest plates of the famous artist Jacques Marie Gaston Onfray De Breville better known As Job. The other artists are: Aubry, Benigni, Boisselier, E.Chaperon, Dupray,  Hilpert, Knotel, Krakow, Lapeyre, R.Louis, Roux, Vallet & others . Also this book is based almost entirely on the Viskuezzen collection, which belongs to the NYPL, to whom we are particularly grateful. We left all the captions of the plates in the original French text. All the plates have been extensively restored and partially reconstructed, since the originals preserved at the NYPL are  not in good condition, often assembled in rough cut-outs etc.

Napoleon was defeated by a combined Allied army in 1815 at Waterloo, and Louis XVIII was returned to the throne. Realizing that the remains of the existing army had no loyalty to the restored monarchy, the government of Louis XVIII undertook a wholesale disbandment of what had been Napoleon’s regiments. In their place a system of Departmental Legions was created with no historic connections to empire, republic or even the pre-1792 monarchy. His government appointed many aristocratic officers to the new army, which lost much of its morale, much as it had in 1789. In 1823, a French expeditionary force aided Spanish troops loyal to the Bourbon king of that country when his regime was threatened by an uprising. In 1830, Louis XVIII’s brother, Charles X, now king, was toppled in the July Revolution.