BY PAUL POSER, PRAGUE, CIRCA 1720

Details

A Fine Pair Of 25-Bore Bohemian D.B. Flintlock Pistols
By Paul Poser, Prague, circa 1720
With long swamped barrels signed 'Paul Poser In Prag' and retaining some original blued finish on the ribs, brass fore-sights, border engraved grooved tangs, signed flat bevelled locks finely engraved with mounted horsemen and pikemen, and on the tails with a musketeer within an encampment scene, the cocks engraved with foliage and chiselled with a monster-head in relief, moulded figured walnut full stocks (slight damage) carved in relief with strapwork and foliage at the barrel tangs and with foliage at the rear ramrod-pipes, full brass mounts finely cast and chased with strapwork and foliage in low relief, partly on a punched ground, the trigger-guards with a portrait bust of a warrior, the spurred pommels with a standing Classical warrior on each side, grotesque mask pommel-caps, pierced escutcheons each engraved with owner's crest and with coronet above supported by a female figure on either side, orginal horn-tipped wooden ramrods, and some original gilding (one trigger incomplete, some surface rust and minor pitting)
21in. (53.3cm.) (2)

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

Paul Poser was one of the leading Bohemian gunmakers of the first half of the 18th century. He is especially noted for his co-operation with the distinguished chiseller Franz Matzenkopf, medal die-cutter at the court of the Prince-Bishops of Salzburg, who is thought to have been responsible for the relief decoration on the locks and mounts of some of Poser's firearms

See John Hayward, The Art of the Gunmaker, vol. II, 1963, pp. 124-126

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