Arms of France, 1831-48, as they appear at the top of a frame surrounding
a portrait of Louis-Philippe, workshop of Winterhalter. The portrait and frame
were sent in 1848 to King Kamehameha III of Hawaii and have stayed there since.
(Source: Collection of the State of Hawaii, The Friends of Iolani Palace
http://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/frarms.htm)
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The Ordonnance of Feb. 26, 1831 reads: À l'avenir,
le sceau de l'État représentera un livre ouvert portant à l'intérieur ces mots
"Charte de 1830", surmonté d'une couronne fermée, avec le sceptre et la main de justice
en sautoir, et des drapeaux tricolores derrière l'écusson, et pour exergue
"Louis-Philippe Ier, Roi des Français". That is, an open book with the words
"Charter of 1830", (the shield) surmounted by a closed crown; behind the shield,
in saltire, were the scepter and hand of justice, as well as tricolor flags.
King Louis-Philippe abdicated the throne but the strong current of public opinion rejected
the nomination of his son, Phiippe, as the new monarch. On February 26, the Second Republic
was proclaimed and Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was elected President in December.
A few years later he declared himself president for life and then Emperor Napoleon III.
This image is a file from the Wikipedia Commons.
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<<>>Musical Politics in France<<>>
On April 22, 1845 a public comparison of bands was held on the Champs-de-Mars: one
assembled by Adolphe Sax versus one assembled by Michele Enrico Carafa, director of the
Gymnase de Musique Militaire where most musicians of
the army were trained. Reportedly, over 20,000 spectators were present to witness the contest between Sax, who wanted to reorganize the military bands to incorporate his line of saxhorns,
and Carafa, who advocated retaining the traditional instrumention including natural horns. Sax was the clear victor and the new order
that came in 1846 specified four cors à pistons and no natural horns, as well as a full
complement of saxhorns. Although the omnitonic horn patent was issued in 1847, it was probably in development much earlier while
natural horns were still in the military band complement. It would seem likely that this was Gautrot's
target market. The order of 1846 eliminating natural horns along with the apparent disinterest
on the part of the faculty of the Conservatiore and orchestral musicians, the market for the
omnitonic horn all but disappeared.
On February 24, 1848, under public pressure Louis-Philippe suddenly abdicated the throne of France in
what became known as the Revolution of 1848. That also became a very difficult year for music, musicians, and instrument manufacture in France:
Les fabricants d'instruments de cuivre, qui en 1847 avaient
vu le chiffre de leurs affaires commerciales s'élever à 1,620,500 fr.
et qui occupaient, à Paris seulement, 461 ouvriers, virent ces
mêmes affaires se réduire 923,500 francs et furent obligés de
renvoyer 102 ouvriers.
[Pontcoulant,Organographie, Tome 2, p.468]
Manufacturers of brass instruments, which in 1847 had
seen the total of their business reach 1,620,500 fr.
and had occupied in Paris alone 461 workers, saw these
same figures reduced to 923,500 francs and were forced to
dismiss 102 workers.
The general depression affected all instrument manufacturers in a similar manner. The Opéra-National
and lyric theatres were forced to close, musicians and singers were put out of work, and the
"cloud of concerts" that usually took place in Paris disappeared.
Immediately following the fall of the monarchy, Carafa sought his revenge on his defeat by Sax in
1845-6. He persuaded the Ministry of War to reverse the order of 1846. As a result
the order of March 21, 1848 reinstated the two cors ordinaires (natural horns)
and the saxhorns were replaced with traditional instruments much to the dismay of the
musical press who perceived this a huge step backward. This would seem to have been
favorable for Gautrot's omnitonic horn which is essentially a natural horn without
the cumbersome box full of terminal crooks.
<<>>A Franco-Mexican Connection<<>>
An inscription on the bell identifies "I. Charpentier à Mexico"
(perhaps a sales representative for Gautrot or horn player).
As cited previously, Gautrot held thousands of instruments in stock in 1847, which undoubtedly
included some quantity that were already stamped with the arms of
the monarchy and were thus no longer marketable in France. This circumstance, along with
the generally depressed state of the music business in France in 1848, compelled Gautrot
to put this instrument out for export. He was probably already seeking to develop his
export market which by 1860 was reported to be 70 percent of his output. Presumably M. I. Charpentier
was Gautrot's representative in Mexico. The war between Mexico and the United States was just ending;
the Peace treaty was signed on February 2, 1848, almost simultaneously with the fall of the French monarchy.
Nancy Nichols Barker summarizes France's relationship with Mexico under Louis-Philippe as follows:
The Orleanist government simply had no Mexican policy in the decade of the 1840s.
The government had just sense enough not to repeat the naval action of 1838-39 but
found nothing to take its place. Conscious of its ineffectiveness, it sulked and snapped,
and, while professing officially its desire to live on good terms with Mexico, maintained
representatives in the field with manifestly hostile intentions. Objects of ridicule and
scorn, these agents hindered, instead of helping, the interests they were there to serve.
French subjects in Mexico were left to their own devices to cope with the civil wars and
Francophobe administrations. French commerce never recovered from the blows dealt it by
the French war of the previous decade and by 1847, when Mexico was under the American
blockade, it all but ceased entirely.
It was of course true that many of the elements necessary for the prosperity of the French
in Mexico were beyond the control of the French government. Nevertheless, the policy of
laissez-faire, at least as practiced by the so-called bourgeois monarchy, proved more
curse than blessing to its subjects and trade in Mexico. Its deplorable record might well
serve to demonstrate to a more energetic and visionary French ruler the perils of aimless
drift and the need for a bolder course.
The French Experience in Mexico 1821-1861, p. 116
Relations between France and Mexico improved almost immediately following the fall of the
French monarchy. André Nicolas Levasseur was appointed the new minister plenipotentiary to
Mexico. Soon trade was restored between the two countries and the Mexican army was rebuilding
under the French model with the newest weapons, training, and perhaps even French musical instruments.
It would be improper, in speaking of the Mexican military, not to notice,
especially, their excellent bands of music. ... It is the
custom for one of the regimental bands to meet after sundown, under the
windows of the Palace, in the Plaza, which is filled with an attentive
crowd of eager listeners to the choicest airs of modern composers.
Mayer, Brantz. Mexico as it was and as it is, Third Edition. Philadelphia: G. B. ZIEBER & COMPANY, 1847. p. 287
Levasseur's first official assignment was to canvass the French community and produce a "register"
of French citizens.
In characterizing the French community in Mexico at mid-century, Barker states:
The French had become something like a small state within a state. They seem to have mixed
very little in Mexican society except at the official level. The French minister formed
social ties with prominent Mexicans, attended the opera, and received Mexican guests at
the legation. But he was an exception. Those who could afford it, careful to preserve
their national identity, sent their children to French-speaking schools and subscribed to
French newspapers. The working classes kept much to themselves, spending their days in
their shops and their evenings or other free time at a café or in a game of boules.
Not even to attend mass did the French need to mix with Mexicans, at least in the capital.
In 1849 Levasseur reported the consecration of a church especially for French use.
Beneath vaulted arches hung with the tricolore the French curé presided over their
spiritual life and the more dignified, sober displays of French patriotism.
Why did the urban Frenchman in Mexico cling so tenaciously to his qualité de français
and resist assimilation into Mexican society? One reason no doubt was the relatively short
time he had had to learn the Spanish language or to adopt a Mexican life-style. For almost
without exception the French in Mexico at mid-century were first generation. Only 3 in Levasseur's
survey gave Mexico as their place of birth, and none of these can be proved to have been
in Mexico as early as 1820. Only 12 had been born elsewhere in the Americas. Indeed,
only 47 out of the entire 1,810 on Levasseur's list had been born outside the French
métropole. The French were thus newcomers not only to Mexico but to the New World
in general. The earlier French of the eighteenth century had departed, and a new
generaton had replaced them.
op. cit., Barker, pp. 130-131.
<<>>Musical Life in Mexico<<>>
With both local and touring productions beginning around 1830, Italian opera enjoyed some popularity in Mexico.
It was not without its ups and downs, however:
I have said, that this musical taste pervades all classes; and it was,
therefore, to be hoped, that a regularly established Operatic corps would
have readily succeeded in the Capital. But from a variety of causes the
experiment failed. The Revolution of 1841, interfered with it at the outset,
in the months of August and September; and, from the unfavorable
location of the house, and other circumstances, the whole enterprise was
visited with a series of disastrous losses that left the management, in July,
1842, with a deficit of upward of 32,000 dollars. The singers were
good: the prima donna (Madame Castellan,) and basso, unexceptionable;
but the establishment never became fashionable.
op. cit., Mayer, p. 287
By 1847 when this horn was made, however, the situation began to improve
and the instrument might have been employed in the opera orchestra rather than the military band.
The History of North American Theater: The United States, Canada, and Mexico, p. 149
Of the several theatres in Mexico City at mid-century the two leading were the remodeled Teatro Principal
(above) and El Gran Teatro Nacional (below) built in honor of Santa Anna in 1844.
On May 15, 1850 the Teatro Nacional presented Verdi's "Ernani" to the Mexican public featuring
la Compañía de Ópera Valtellina-Duvercy under the direction of Antonio Barilli.
This was the first performance of a Verdi opera in Mexico. The following year, Max Maretzek presented "Don Giovanni"
said to be the first performance of a work by Mozart in Mexico. Other Mexican venues include the Gran Teatro Iturbide
(1845, later named Teatro de la República) in Santiago de Querétaro, and the
Teatro Alarcón in Guadalajara which opened in 1856 with Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor".
The History of North American Theater: The United States, Canada, and Mexico, p. 154
Brantz Mayer (Mexico as it was and as it is, p. 45) describes the Catte Platens in Mexico City as "a street filled with the shops of
goldsmiths, watchmakers, French hairdressers, French cooks, French
milliners, French carvers and gilders, and French print-sellers;". Apropos of the latter
the amount of French books exported from France to Mexico in 1846 was close to 9,000 kgs,
and "the figures for Mexico will grow to 26,284 kgs in 1849 and 37,586 kgs in 1850."
By 1851 "Mexico received 44,327 kgs of French books, or more than Brazil (33,847
kgs) and only some 15,000 kgs under the figure for the United States. Book exports to Mexico
decrease after that year, but remain high (e.g., 22,917 kgs in 1860, in the midst of the civil war)."
Rodrguez-Luis, Julio. "Book Exports From Spain and France to Latin America in the Nineteenth Century", pp.22, 23
(Note: The author emphasizes that the data represents weight and not individual books, and that "books" might represent any type of printed matter.)
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