with copper alloy barrel formed in two stages, decorated with a band of naïve lightly punched scrollwork on the breech, a pair of punched and incised girdles at the median and cast with a raised breech moulding (the barrel shortened by up to 5.0 cm), engraved iron tang, bevelled trapezoid lock retained by three side-nails, fitted with separate pan, horizontally acting sear and dog safety-catch engaging a flat broad-breasted cock (top-jaw and screw restored, the steel restored from an early alteration), figured walnut full stock, fluted fore-end (the forward 10.0 cm and the fore-end cap expertly restored), flattened butt carved with a wheat-husk moulding behind the barrel tang, punched with small decorative stars along the spine of the butt, pommel fitted with associated ivory cap (the ivory with a small repair) and enclosed by a band of copper alloy engraved with strawberry foliage, copper alloy trigger-guard incised with a wavy linear pattern en suite with the cock and safety-catch, and one small brass ramrod-pipe (ramrod restored), 52.1 cm overall

Provenance

Captain Farquharson, Invercauld Castle, sold Sotheby's 30th June 2004, lot 102

An Important English Private Collection

Literature

John Cooper, An English Holster Pistol of Commonwealth Date, in The Park Lane Arms Fair 2006, p. 65

Brian Godwin, The Luttrell Pistols, in The Park Lane Arms Fair 2013, no. 16, p. 91.

The principal characteristics of the lock place it within the type 2 category of the 17th Century English-locks as identified by Graeme Rimer in his study of the firearms at Littlecote House, subsequently expanded upon by Messrs Godwin, Cooper and Spencer in their published survey. See Goodwin, Cooper and Spencer, 2003. The leading terminal of the lock-plate on the present pistol is distinctly angular and as such is very unusual. A similar configuration exists in a musket of circa 1640, in the armoury at Dunster Castle, Somerset. Another comparable example is found in a pistol worn by Abraham Stanyan in his portrait (dated 1644), exhibited 'The Age of Charles I', the Tate Gallery, 1972 (op. cit. fig.73).