CIRCA 1640

Details

A Rare Pair Of 30-Bore French Wheel-Lock Holster Pistols
Circa 1640
With two-stage barrels, octagonal then polygonal, flat bevelled locks with chiselled and turned details, fruitwood full stocks (minor chips) with fluted fore-ends and flattened butts, carved in relief with a spray of foliage above the triggers, iron mounts, iron fore-end caps, single iron ramrod-pipes, and later iron-tipped ramrods (iron parts with some surface pitting)
21¾in. (55.2cm.) (2)

Provenance

William Goodwin Renwick, Sotheby & Co., London, 17 December 1974, lot 67 (£4,400 to Jenkinson)

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

W.G. Renwick (1886-1971), of Tucson, Arizona, acquired his interest in antique firearms as a boy, and formed most of his collection between the two World Wars. He made many trips to Europe, and purchased some of his finest pieces from the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. At the time of his death his collection numbered over 1,500 items, nearly all of which were sold in a series of auctions in London and Los Angeles between 1972 and 1975, establishing new levels of value for antique firearms, and including the gun of c.1620 made by Pierre le Bourgeois of Lisieux for King Louis XIII of France, acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 1972. 223) in November 1972 for £125,000, a record at auction for arms and armour which was not beaten until 1981

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