The Grenadiers’ Sergeant Receiving the Major’s Order
€120
- Cartographer
- Pierre Jacques François Girard
- Date
- 1740
- Publication
- Traité des armes · Den Haag, P. de Hondt, 1740
- Plate
- 116e planche · p. 156
- Medium
- Hand-colored engraving heightened with gold
- Condition
- Toning and light mottling across the sheet, with old handwriting in the upper margin. The reverse shows the image through the paper, with brownish marks and some edge darkening.
About this piece
Heightened with gold!
Beautiful hand-colored engraving heightened with gold from Pierre Jacques François Girard’s Traité des armes. Den Haag, P. de Hondt, 1740.
116e planche · “Sergent des Grenadiers recevant l’ordre du major.”
A sergeant in a scarlet coat stands in profile holding his spontoon upright, his hat lowered at his side. Facing him, the major wears a blue coat and extends his sword horizontally. It is a striking illustration of the formal exchange between the two ranks.
Gold highlights the head of the sergeant’s spontoon, the major’s hat and the trim of both coats. The strong red and blue of the uniforms stand out against the green ground.
Girard’s illustrated manual documents small-sword fencing, foreign guards and the weapons and drills of the French military in the eighteenth century.