Nicolas-Noel Boutet (1761-1833) was trained by his father, a royal gunsmith, and secured his place in the upper echelon of French gunmakers by marrying the daughter of his father's partner which allowed him to become gunmaker-in-ordinary to King Louis XVI in 1788. He became the artistic director of the arms factory at Versailles in 1792 and then the head director in 1798. Under his direction, some of the finest pieces of firearms art ever crafted flowed from Versailles. Napoleon was so impressed by his work that he granted a concession to Boutet for arms for 18 years, and Boutet continued to work in Paris after the Second Bourbon Restoration. After 1818, his fortunes declined until his death in 1833. French gunmaker Francois Prelat patented the copper percussion cap in 1818. The barrels are signed in script with "Boutet S." and "Manufre a Versailles," and the locks are signed "Boutet/a Versailles." The hammers are marked "INV ON PRELAT." The swamped barrels are finely rifled and have dovetailed blade sights right at the muzzles, deep sighting grooves that extend onto the upper tangs which are numbered "1" and "2" respectively and have notch sights. The locks were cleanly converted and have only faint traces of the filled taps, and they are tripped by adjustable single set triggers. The trigger guard have hooks and grooved floral patterns. The pommel caps and side plates also have fluted patterns, and the side plates and some of the screws are also engraved. The stocks have checkered wrists and flared pommels with contrasting caps. The case has appears to read "Manufre A VERSAILLES/Entrep se Boutet" on the lid escutcheon in varied script. The case contains a cleaning rod, ball mold, loading rods, flint knapping hammer, maller, pick, ball pulling attachment, oiler, screwdriver, and powder flask.

See "A."