A FINE FRENCH FLINTLOCK HOLSTER PISTOL with sighted barrel (some pitting) signed 'Piraube Aux Galleries A Paris, 1684' on the sighting flat, and engraved with a classical trophy of arms in front of the silver fore-sight, the breech with an engraved standing Turkish warrior flanked by chiselled scrollwork and overcut with the inventory number 43, all the decoration retaining much of its original gilt ground, the tang engraved with a muscian, signed rounded lock engraved with Mars and Minerva within a beadwork border, later cock, chiselled steel, carved finely figured Grenoble walnut full stock (some cracks and restoration), finely engraved and chiselled steel mounts decorated with masks and scrollwork (escutcheon removed), partly on a gilt ground (gilding worn), spurred pommel with grotesque mask cap, elaborately pierced and chiselled side-plate centering on a moustachioed grotesque mask, and later wooden ramrod, by Bertrand Piraube, Paris, dated 1684 | Christie's

Lot 205

205

A FINE FRENCH FLINTLOCK HOLSTER PISTOL with sighted barrel (some pitting) signed 'Piraube Aux Galleries A Paris, 1684' on the sighting flat, and engraved with a classical trophy of arms in front of the silver fore-sight, the breech with an engraved standing Turkish warrior flanked by chiselled scrollwork and overcut with the inventory number 43, all the decoration retaining much of its original gilt ground, the tang engraved with a muscian, signed rounded lock engraved with Mars and Minerva within a beadwork border, later cock, chiselled steel, carved finely figured Grenoble walnut full stock (some cracks and restoration), finely engraved and chiselled steel mounts decorated with masks and scrollwork (escutcheon removed), partly on a gilt ground (gilding worn), spurred pommel with grotesque mask cap, elaborately pierced and chiselled side-plate centering on a moustachioed grotesque mask, and later wooden ramrod, by Bertrand Piraube, Paris, dated 1684

Details

A FINE FRENCH FLINTLOCK HOLSTER PISTOL with sighted barrel (some pitting) signed 'Piraube Aux Galleries A Paris, 1684' on the sighting flat, and engraved with a classical trophy of arms in front of the silver fore-sight, the breech with an engraved standing Turkish warrior flanked by chiselled scrollwork and overcut with the inventory number 43, all the decoration retaining much of its original gilt ground, the tang engraved with a muscian, signed rounded lock engraved with Mars and Minerva within a beadwork border, later cock, chiselled steel, carved finely figured Grenoble walnut full stock (some cracks and restoration), finely engraved and chiselled steel mounts decorated with masks and scrollwork (escutcheon removed), partly on a gilt ground (gilding worn), spurred pommel with grotesque mask cap, elaborately pierced and chiselled side-plate centering on a moustachioed grotesque mask, and later wooden ramrod, by Bertrand Piraube, Paris, dated 1684
20in.

Lot Essay

Bertrand Piraube, personal gunmaker to Louis XIV, was granted logement in the Galleries du Louvre on 25 January, 1670, and held his appointment until about 1724. He is generally recognised as the most distinguished of the French gunmakers of the Classical Louis XIV period, and is well represented in most important royal and princely armouries

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