An Extremely Rare Pair Of 32-Bore German Flintlock Holster Pistols With Tortoiseshell-Veneered Stocks
Circa 1670-80, Probably Augsburg

Lot No: 372. With two-stage barrels each with later silvered and gilt decoration and struck on the underside of each breech with a mark, respectively an axe (?) (perhaps Neue Støckel 6123, for Suhl), and a horseshoe (?) (also perhaps for Suhl), slender tangs with later etched and gilt decoration, rounded locks and trigger-guards with later silvered and gilt decoration, plain silver trigger-plates, fore-end bands and single ramrod-pipes, oval silver pommels with later etched decoration and crowned arms of Leopold, duc de Lorraine (1679-1729), and silver-tipped ramrods, perhaps original (minor repairs to tortoiseshell): now contained in a fitted velvet-lined case  47 cm. Estimate: £15,000 - 20,000

Provenance: Joe Kindig, Jr., York, Pennsylvania

Literature:
William Reid, 'Tortoise-shell Veneered Pistols in the Scott Collection', The Scottish Art Review Special Number, vol. VI, no. I, p. 38
John S. DuMont, 'Joe Kindig, Jr., Master of Antiquities', Antique Arms Annual, p.155 (illustrated)

William Reid records a total of only about thirty known wheel-lock and flintlock pistols with tortoiseshell-veneered stocks, to which can be added a single pistol in an Italian private collection, and a pair sold at Christie's, King Street, 29 March 1995, lot 134 (£41,100 including premium).

The tentative attribution to Augsburg derives from the fact that a number of such pistols bear the Augsburg guild mark on the barrel

The two holes in each trigger-guard of the present pistols may originally have served to retain applied silver plates set with turquoises, which may also have adorned the pommels

(Copyright © 2002-2007 Bonhams 1793 Ltd., Images and Text All Rights Reserved)

Bonhams. Fine Antique Arms & Armour from the Henk L. Visser Collection, 28 Nov 2007. Knightsbridge