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Lot 344
A Fine Pair Of 20-Bore Silver-Mounted Flintlock Holster PistolsBy Benjamin Griffin, London, London Silver Hallmarks For 1748
17 May 2017, 13:00 BST
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £25,000 inc. premium
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Find your local specialistA Fine Pair Of 20-Bore Silver-Mounted Flintlock Holster Pistols
By Benjamin Griffin, London, London Silver Hallmarks For 1748
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
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








