Skip to main content

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 Fine Pair Of 20-Bore Silver-Mounted Flintlock Holster Pistols (2) image 1
A Fine Pair Of 20-Bore Silver-Mounted Flintlock Holster Pistols (2) image 2
A Fine Pair Of 20-Bore Silver-Mounted Flintlock Holster Pistols (2) image 3
A Fine Pair Of 20-Bore Silver-Mounted Flintlock Holster Pistols (2) image 4
Lot 344

A Fine Pair Of 20-Bore Silver-Mounted Flintlock Holster Pistols
By Benjamin Griffin, London, London Silver Hallmarks For 1748

17 May 2017, 13:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £25,000 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 Fine Pair Of 20-Bore Silver-Mounted Flintlock Holster Pistols
By Benjamin Griffin, London, London Silver Hallmarks For 1748

With swamped barrels retaining most of their blued finish and each with hinged silver fore-sight, engraved 'Bond Street London' in an elongated loop on the top flat of the breech and engraved with a band of acanthus foliage at the rear, touch-holes re-lined with platinum, engraved tangs each incorporating a concealed hinged iron back-sight, rounded locks each with raised border and signed within a foliate ribbon, moulded figured full stocks (one fore-end with small repair in front of the lock) each carved in relief with shells at the barrel tang, full cast and chased mounts comprising pierced side-plate each with a scallop shell and foliage centred on a cartouche, engraved spurred pommels each with grotesque mask cap, trigger-guards with first pattern acorn finial and engraved with a shell and foliage on the bow, vacant escutcheons with shell above and grotesque mask beneath, engraved silver ramrod-pipes, and horn-tipped ramrods, one with iron worm, London proof marks and Foreigner's mark (2)
22.5 cm. barrels

Footnotes

Provenance
Heydon Hall, Norfolk, the seat of the Bulwer family
W. Keith Neal Collection
Christie's London, Fine Antique Firearms from the W. Keith Neal Collection, 25 October 2001, lot 238

Literature
W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, Great British Gunmakers 1740-1790, 1975, p. 106, pls. 355-357
Idem, Messrs Griffin & Tow and W. Bailes 1740-1790, 1989, p. 95, pls. 36 a-c

Cf. a very similar pair of pistols by the same maker, formerly in the W. Keith Neal Collection and sold in these Rooms, Antique Arms & Armour, 24 April 2013, lot 462

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.

A COLLECTION OF ANTIQUE AND REPRODUCTION POWDER FLASKS AND RELATED SPORTING ITEMS.

THREE VICTORIAN ARMS AND ARMOUR DECORATIVE ITEMS.