Lot Essay
Robert Harvey was apprenticed to Henry Anthonison and turned over to John Dafte in 1691. He was made free of the Gunmakers' Company in 1702, and was elected Master in 1725. He died in 1734
Details
A PAIR OF 22-BORE FLINTLOCK HOLSTER PISTOLS
BY ROBERT HARVEY, LONDON, CIRCA 1710
With slightly belled two-stage barrels retaining traces of signature and engraved foliage at the breech, engraved tangs (rubbed), signed rounded locks engraved with double line borders (one steel-spring finial missing), rounded cocks and steels engraved with strawberry foliage, moulded highly figured rootwood full stocks (fore-ends partly replaced) with pronounced swelling behind the rear ramrod-pipes and raised apron around the barrel tangs, iron mounts including pierced interlaced serpentine side-plates chiselled with foliage, escutcheons chiselled with acanthus foliage, spurred pommels with grotesque mask caps and engraved with strawberry foliage on each side, trigger-guards also engraved with strawberry foliage, and baluster ramrod-pipes (one replaced, one split), and later iron-capped ramrods, London proof marks
16½in. (2)
BY ROBERT HARVEY, LONDON, CIRCA 1710
With slightly belled two-stage barrels retaining traces of signature and engraved foliage at the breech, engraved tangs (rubbed), signed rounded locks engraved with double line borders (one steel-spring finial missing), rounded cocks and steels engraved with strawberry foliage, moulded highly figured rootwood full stocks (fore-ends partly replaced) with pronounced swelling behind the rear ramrod-pipes and raised apron around the barrel tangs, iron mounts including pierced interlaced serpentine side-plates chiselled with foliage, escutcheons chiselled with acanthus foliage, spurred pommels with grotesque mask caps and engraved with strawberry foliage on each side, trigger-guards also engraved with strawberry foliage, and baluster ramrod-pipes (one replaced, one split), and later iron-capped ramrods, London proof marks
16½in. (2)