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Given this, Cornelius Sr. or Jr. may have ordered the gun based
on Robert’s suggestion or he may have even ordered it for them himself. Perhaps multiple of the Roosevelt men ordered shotguns from France at that time. Theodore Roosevelt Jr.’s own first gun was also a Lefaucheux 12 gauge pinfire double gun made in 1872 and purchased for him by his father. It is pictured on pages 18 and 19 of “Theodore Roosevelt Hunter-Conservationist” and page 13 of “Theodore Roosevelt Outdoorsman” and is in the collection of
on the under lever. The right side of the frame has a scene of two dogs pursuing a boar down a hill bordered by darker foliage and a group of three snipe towards the front. The left side has three grouse at the front and two hounds pursuing a large stag over a downed tree at the rear. The lever has an eagle with a fish in its talons and mountains in the background on the bottom and busts of dogs on the tip. The trigger guard has waterfowl on the front, a pronghorn buck and doe on the bow, and what appears to be a peacock in a
The best and most generally adopted of the various kinds [of breechloaders] is the Lefaucheux..."
- Robert Barnhill Roosevelt, Uncle of Theodore Roosevelt, from his book Game Birds of the North.
the Sagamore Hill National Historic Site. It is also shown in period photographs in young Roosevelt’s hands in the books. The exact details of the order for this incredible shotgun in 1866 have been lost to time, but regardless of whether President Theodore Roosevelt’s grandfather or uncle originally owned the gun, it clearly came down directly through the Roosevelt family. Such a fine gun would have caught the young Roosevelt’s eye given his well-known fondness for fine guns throughout his life, and this gun plus his uncle’s preference for them likely heavily influenced the purchase of Roosevelt’s own first gun. The shotgun was built based on Casimir Lefaucheux’s 1834 patent in 1866. The engraving on the action components really
sets this shotgun apart from the vast majority of early double guns and consists of very finely detailed game scenes with a variety of animals and delicate foliage along with scroll and geometric accents and the “CVSR” gold monogram in a escutcheon with gold border
tree with two females below in the grass on the tang. The locks have different highly detailed scenes with hunting dogs and game and
are signed “LEFAUCHEUX” below the hammers. The hammer rests on the standing breech are shaped similar to hunting horns, and a fox is engraved on the upper tang. The buttplate has a fleeing rabbit on the heel. The dramatically patterned Damascus barrels have a bead front sight and “Lefaucheux a Paris” signed on the concave rib, “19526.1866” on the bottom of the rib, the “gun/LF” Lefaucheux maker’s mark and “6256” on the lug, and “LEOPOLD BERNARD” and “CANONNIER A PARIS” on the respective barrels flanked by sunken “crown/iron cross” and “crown/LB” marks. The bore diameters 9 inches from the breech are .738/.737 (12 gauge). The water table has “LEFAUCHEUX 1866” on the left and “LEFAUCHEUX 770” on the right. The stock is nicely figured and has smooth oiled finish and a 14 1/8 inch length of pull.
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