Skip to main content
Bonhams
Search

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

A Cased Pair Of Scottish 50-Bore Percussion Duelling Or Target Pistols By Alex.r Martin, Glasgow, Mid-19th Century
The medals and associate ephemera and uniforms of Arthur Watts, 6th Inniskilling Dragoons
A Pair Of Highland All-Metal Percussion Belt Pistols Signed Paton & Walsh Perth, Mid 19th century
A Silver-Mounted Left-Hand Dagger, probably German, Italian or English Late 16th Century Or Later
FOUR REPRODUCTION CARVED POWDER HORNS/FLASKS.late 20th century.
THREE CARVED COCONUT ITEMS.18th/19th century.
A COLLECTION OF ANTIQUE AND REPRODUCTION POWDER FLASKS AND RELATED SPORTING ITEMS.
THREE VICTORIAN ARMS AND ARMOUR DECORATIVE ITEMS.
Previous Lot
Next Lot
Lot 70

A Very Rare Pair Of Indian 14-Bore Silver-Mounted Flintlock Holster Pistols In the English Manner
Lucknow Arsenal, Circa 1780-5

Antique Arms and Armour
30 November 2011, 10:30 GMT
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £10,000 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Arms and Armour specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

A Very Rare Pair Of Indian 14-Bore Silver-Mounted Flintlock Holster Pistols In the English Manner
Lucknow Arsenal, Circa 1780-5

With rebrowned two-stage sighted barrels each with gilt turned girdle and engraved with a gilt starburst around the silver fore-sight, octagonal breeches chiselled in low relief with panels of running foliage on a stippled gilt ground, the right side of each breech inscribed 'Major Claud Martin', gold-lined touch-holes, grooved chiselled and gilt tangs, bevelled locks chiselled and engraved with foliage against a stippled gilt ground, signed 'Lucknow Arsenal' on a scroll and each with gold-lined pan, roller, pierced cock and large sliding safety-catch also locking the steel, the last three chiselled en suite with the lock, figured walnut full stocks each carved with a shell behind the barrel tang (fore-ends repaired) and inlaid with fine silver wire scrollwork involving a trophy of arms on the back of each butt, sparsely engraved silver mounts cast and chased with flowering foliage comprising spurred pommels, pierced side-plates, escutcheons engraved with crowned lion crest above the initials 'CMM', and trigger-guards each with scallop shell finial, set triggers, and silver-tipped ramrods (2)
25.8 cm. barrels

Footnotes

Provenance:
Charles Draeger Collection, Sotheby's Monaco, 7 December 1987, lot 15
Sold in these Rooms, Antique Arms & Armour, 24 July 2002, lot 385

Literature:
Howard L. Blackmore, 'General Claude Martin, Master Gunmaker', The Canadian Journal of Arms Collecting, vol. 27, no. 1 (February 1989), p.7, pl. 7 and p.10

Claude Martin was born in 1735 in Lyons, the son of a cooper. He served with the French army 1752-60, when he deserted in India and joined the East India Company forces. Commissioned as Ensign in 1763, he was promoted Captain and appointed Superintendent of Artillery and Arsenals to the Nawab of Oudh. With the rank of Major he established the Lucknow Arsenal in 1779. Under his supervision and training a number of fine arms were produced by European and native armourers, examples of which are in the collections of the Royal Armouries, Leeds (very similar to the present example) and the National Army Museum, Chelsea. He reached the rank of Major General and died at Lucknow in 1800. For further information on Claude Martin, patron of Zoffany and founder of La Martinière College, see Howard L. Blackmore, op. cit., pp. 3-12

The majority of arms produced by the Lucknow Arsenal bear Martin's name, however the presence of his initials C (laud) M (artin) M (ajor) on the escutcheons may indicate that this pair was possibly made for his personal use

For a pair of similar pistols sold together with a related gun and all by the same maker see Christie's South Kensington, Antique Arms and Armour and Books, 19 July 2001, lot 112

Additional information

Bid now on these items

A Cased Pair Of Scottish 50-Bore Percussion Duelling Or Target Pistols By Alex.r Martin, Glasgow, Mid-19th Century
The medals and associate ephemera and uniforms of Arthur Watts, 6th Inniskilling Dragoons
A Pair Of Highland All-Metal Percussion Belt Pistols Signed Paton & Walsh Perth, Mid 19th century
A Silver-Mounted Left-Hand Dagger, probably German, Italian or English Late 16th Century Or Later
FOUR REPRODUCTION CARVED POWDER HORNS/FLASKS.late 20th century.
THREE CARVED COCONUT ITEMS.18th/19th century.
A COLLECTION OF ANTIQUE AND REPRODUCTION POWDER FLASKS AND RELATED SPORTING ITEMS.
THREE VICTORIAN ARMS AND ARMOUR DECORATIVE ITEMS.