Dear Friends and Supporters of the Lefaucheux Legacy,
While revisiting Jules Verne’s Aventures de trois Russes et de trois Anglais dans l’Afrique australe (1872), I stumbled on a wonderful arms-history cameo. Early in the story, Sir John Murray presents Mokoum with “un excellent rifle, du système Pauly, à longue portée,” an excellent long-range rifle of the Pauly system.
It’s a brief line, but it carries real weight. In Jules Verne’s handwritten manuscript, preserved today in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the rifle is initially identified as a Remington. In the published novel, however, Verne replaces that contemporary American name with Pauly. The change is telling. Remington spoke to modern reputation, while Pauly represented origins and the foundational idea of the cartridge and the breech-loading firearm rooted in European innovation.
That choice brings us directly to the Lefaucheux story. Casimir Lefaucheux was trained in the Pauly tradition, later acquired the Pauly workshop and rights, and began refining what already existed. Building on Pauly’s foundational ideas, Lefaucheux transformed early concepts into practical, serviceable systems. From that evolution came the innovations that would define the Lefaucheux legacy, culminating in the pinfire system that changed firearms history.
To tie it all together, we’ve just released a new episode in our archive video series:
The Pauly Pistol: The Beginning of Modern Firearms
Direct Youtube link: https://youtu.be/0l6_s_10bzQ
With sincere thanks for your continued interest in the history we preserve,
Aaron Newcomer
President
The Lefaucheux Museum