Carlist War

The Carlist War is a turning point in Casper Gutman’s account of the black bird’s history. He places the object’s apparent passage from a Spanish family into Paris at the end of the conflict, while acknowledging that the identity and knowledge of whoever carried it away remain uncertain.

The Bird Before the War

Gutman traces the bird to a Spaniard associated with the army that took Naples in 1734, identifying him as the father of Don José Monino y Redondo, Count of Floridablanca. The account offers no proof that the bird remained with this family, but Gutman considers it possible that it did so until at least the end of the Carlist War. The distinction between a proposed history and a documented one matters: the family’s possession is presented as a likelihood, not a certainty.

Reappearance in Paris

After that possible period in the family’s hands, the bird appeared in Paris at roughly the time the city was full of Carlists who had been forced to leave Spain. Gutman surmises that one of the exiles brought it there, but cannot identify the carrier or establish that person’s knowledge of the object’s value. The war therefore supplies a historical setting for the bird’s movement, not a fully verified account of who transported it or why.

Disguise and Historical Significance

By Gutman’s reconstruction, the bird had been painted or enameled over, perhaps as a precaution during the Carlist troubles in Spain. Its surface made it look like an interesting black statuette rather than the valuable object hidden beneath the coating. In this disguise, it passed among private owners and dealers in Paris for seventy years, with its significance overlooked. The episode links political upheaval to the object’s concealment, while the qualifications in Gutman’s story preserve an important uncertainty: the suggested motive and route are plausible parts of his reconstruction, not established facts.