CIRCA 1852-1870, SECOND FRENCH EMPIRE, MEDUSA FRENCH CHASSEUR OR CAVALRY, 3 PIECE BUCKLE

Scarce, original, good quality, buckle for an Officer’s sword belt. Medusa head buckle plates and snake clasp. The buckle consists of two large, finely made, circular classical bosettes depicting a finely cast and chased screaming Medusa mask, each measuring about 48mm in diameter. Nice patina and displays honest use and age. This dates from the French Second Empire. The face or head of Medusa appears for some reason in various French military ornaments and decorative touches, from bandoleers to swords. A very similar version can be seen in Michel Petard's 'Equipements Militaires Tome V de 1804-1815', p49, fig 457. Model 1831, circa 1850.

The French Second Republic was a short-lived republican government of France under President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte. It lasted from the 1848 Revolution to the 1851 coup by which the president made himself Emperor Napoleon III and initiated the Second Empire. It officially adopted the motto of the First Republic, Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité. The Second Republic witnessed the tension between the "Social and Democratic Republic" and a liberal form of republicanism, which exploded during the June Days uprising of 1848. The Republic would ultimately last four years, one of the shortest regimes in French history.

The Second French Empire was an Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 14 January 1852 to 27 October 1870, between the Second and the Third French Republics. The period was one of significant achievements in infrastructure and economy, while France reasserted itself as the dominant power in Europe.

Historians in the 1930s and 1940s often disparaged the Second Empire as a precursor of fascism, but by the late 20th century it emerged as an example of a modernizing regime. Historians have generally given the Second Empire negative evaluations on its foreign policy, and somewhat more positive evaluations of domestic policies, especially after Napoleon III liberalized his rule after 1858. He promoted French business and exports. The greatest achievements included a grand railway network that facilitated commerce and tied the nation together with Paris as its hub. This stimulated economic growth and brought prosperity to most regions of the country. The Second Empire is given high credit for the rebuilding of Paris with broad boulevards, striking public buildings and elegant residential districts for higher class Parisians.

In international policy, Napoleon III tried to emulate his uncle Napoleon I, engaging in numerous imperial ventures around the world as well as several wars in Europe. He began his reign with French victories in Crimea and in Italy, gaining Savoy and Nice. Using very harsh methods, he built up the French Empire in North Africa and in Southeast Asia. Napoleon III also launched an intervention in Mexico seeking to erect a Second Mexican Empire and bring it into the French orbit, but this ended in a fiasco. He badly mishandled the threat from Prussia, and by the end of his reign, the French emperor found himself without allies in the face of overwhelming German force. His rule was ended during the Franco-Prussian War, when he was captured by the Prussian army at Sedan in 1870, and dethroned by French republicans. He died in exile in 1873 in England.