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A Fine and Rare Pair Of 18-Bore Silver-Mounted Indian Flintlock Holster Pistols, Together With A 16-Bore Silver-Mounted Flintlock Sporting Gun, All In The English Manner

LUCKNOW ARSENAL, CIRCA 1785

Details

A Fine and Rare Pair Of 18-Bore Silver-Mounted Indian Flintlock Holster Pistols, Together With A 16-Bore Silver-Mounted Flintlock Sporting Gun, All In The English Manner
Lucknow Arsenal, circa 1785
The pistols with rebrowned octagonal barrels chiselled in low relief with panels of running foliage on a punched and gilt ground and inscribed 'L: Col: Claude Martin', gold-lined touch-holes, chiselled and gilt tangs, chiselled and gilt bevelled locks signed 'Lucknow Arsenal' on a scroll, and each with pierced cock, roller, large safety-catch also locking the steel, and gold-lined pan with water- drain, figured rosewood full stocks each carved in relief with a shell behind the barrel tang (one fore-end with minor repair), engraved cast and chased silver mounts including parcel-gilt spurred pommels each with grotesque mask cap, engraved silver barrel-bolt escutcheons and fore-end caps, and silver-tipped ramrods, one with worm; the sporting gun almost en suite, with rebrowned lengthened sighted barrel with later inscription 'Lucknow Arsenal L. Col. Claud (sic) Martin,' grooved chiselled and gilt tang, figured walnut full stock with take-down fore-end (replaced), the butt inlaid on each side with silver wire scrolls involving engraved silver panels representing a fox-hunting scene with hounds in full cry, after Sartorius, and on the right side with a sportsman shooting partridges, and later silver-tipped ramrod (some wear, iron parts with some surface pitting and some refreshed decoration, top jaw and screw replaced)
The pistols 17¾in. (45.1cm.)
The gun with 36in. (91.4cm.) barrel (3)

Provenance

(The pistols) Brigadier T. St. G. Caulfield, Sotheby & Co., London, 16 April 1974, lot 206 (£4, 200 to Ricketts)
(The gun) J.N. George (English Guns & Rifles, p. 109, plate VIII (2))

Literature

(The pistols) Howard L. Blackmore, 'General Claude Martin, Master Gunmaker', The Canadian Journal of Arms Collecting, vol. 27, no. 1 (February 1989), p. 10, plate 9

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

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 later 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 and the National Army Museum, Chelsea. He reached the rank of Major General and died at Lucknow in 1800

The fox-hunting scene on the butt is found on at least two further silver-mounted sporting guns: one is signed 'Mortimer' and the other 'Barbar'
For further information on Claude Martin, patron of Zoffany and founder of La Martinière College, see Howard L. Blackmore, op. cit., pp. 3-12

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