A very rare pair of documentary bronze cannon


Dated to the 21st year of the Daoguang reign, corresponding to 1841 and of the periodEach heavily cast of tapering cylindrical form, with the vent, reinforces, chase and muzzle divided by raised ribs, flanked by a pair of trunnion, inscribed in Chinese and Manchu. Each 102cm (40 ¼in) long. (2).
|清道光 銅紀年火砲 一對「大清道光二十一年」滿漢銘文Provenance: General Victor Denain (1880-1952), Nice, France.A French private collectionSotheby's London, 5 November 2014, lot 126來源： 法國尼斯Victor Denain將軍(1880-1952)舊藏法國私人收藏2014年11月5日於倫敦蘇富比拍賣，拍品126號Victor Denain (1880-1952) was a French general, aviator and politician. He played a key role in the creation of the Salon-de-Provence Air School and the general development of military aviation in France. Denain graduated from Saint-Cyr in 1901 and joined the French Army's cavalry. In 1915, however, he transferred to the French Air Force where he commanded the aircraft of the Allied armies on the Eastern Front (1916–1918). With the French Air Force, he served in the Levant from 1918 to 1923, mainly in Syria. Denain was later Head of the French Military Mission to Poland from 1924 to 1931. From 1933 to 1934, he served as the Chief of the Air Force General Staff under Air Minister Pierre Cot. Together with Cot, they dealt with the air force's technological issues and built a series of new aircraft. From 1934 to 1936, he was Aviation Minister in the Gaston Doumergue government. During this time, and on behalf of France, Denain announced this his country would organise a Paris to Hanoi air race in 1935, modelled after the London-Melbourne race. By 1936, under the Blum government, General Denain, became High Commissioner of French Morocco.