BY JOHN TOW, LONDON, LONDON SILVER HALLMARKS, CIRCA 1787

Details

A Rare 40-Bore D.B. Flintlock Box-Lock Pistol
By John Tow, London, London silver hallmarks, circa 1787
With slightly belled barrels soldered together without ribs and each fitted with detachable pan and steel assembly secured by a tapered pin and leaving only the raised central touch-hole in place, blade fore-sight mounted on an iron bridge between the muzzles, signed action finely engraved with rococo designs, partly on a hatched ground (one cock and one top jaw and screw expertly replaced), engraved crescent-shaped thumbpiece safety-catch locking both cocks simultaneously, swelling flat-sided figured walnut butt (minor bruising), engraved trigger-guard, cast and chased rococo escutcheon pierced with flowers and foliage and engraved with the intial 'C', large cast and chased silver pommel decorated in relief with a Classical trophy of arms, iron ramrod-pipes, and original horn-tipped ramrod (iron cap missing), the iron parts with areas of light pitting, Tower private proof marks, barrel-forger's mark LH crowned, silver maker's mark of John King
11 1/8in. (28.2cm.)

Literature

W. Keith Neal and Back, Messrs Griffin & Tow and W. Bailes, p. 133, plates 63 a-c

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

This pistol has features in common with the pair of Griffin & Tow double pistols sold from the W. Keith Neal Collection in these Rooms, 9 November 2000, lot 204, and the only two known pairs of Griffin & Tow three-barrel pistols (op. cit. pp. 114-15)

For a discussion of the detachable pan and steel assemblies, the purpose of which is obscure, see Jonathan Barrett, 'Six Oddities of English Flintlock Construction', Art, Arms and Armour, vol. 1, pp. 393-4
For details of John Tow, who took over the Griffin & Tow business in 1783, see Neal and Back, op. cit., pp. 28-29, and Eric Griffin, Griffin of Bond Street, pp. 67, 71, 73, 85, 87

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