SIGNED SCHIAZZANO, 1702

Details

A PAIR OF GILT-MOUNTED NEAPOLITAN MIQUELET-LOCK HOLSTER PISTOLS
SIGNED SCHIAZZANO, 1702
With two stage round barrels, ribbed at the breech end, the forward section plain with middle girdles and muzzle rings, plain tangs. Miquelet locks, the lock plates engraved with a coiled serpent around the rear retaining screw and signed Schiazzano along the bottom edge, the cock and frizzen engraved with foliate scrolls, the faces of the frizzens engraved with eagles and the date 1702. Walnut full stocks overlaid with panels of foliate scrolls in engraved and pierced gilt-brass sheet, the panels located at sides of the grip, surrounding the barrel tang, forming the side plate and trigger surround, and underside of the stock. A similar openwork panel on the back of the grip is formed of entwined snakes. The gilt trigger guards are chiseled with foliate scrolls in low relief against a stippled ground, ovoid shaped butt caps with shallow flutes divided into four panels and chiseled in low relief against a stippled ground, with knob finials. The fore-end caps, ramrod pipes, and trumpet-shaped tips of the wooden ramrods are also of gilt brass engraved with leaf ornament.
Length overall 19 ¾ in.
The successful bidder will be responsible for arranging their own shipments or collecting in-person and will be responsible for applicable New York taxes.

Provenance

Carl Anton Osbahr, Rome, 1908.
Carl Robert Lamm, Näsby Castle, near Stockholm, Sweden, sold American Art Association, New York, February 21-24, 1923, lot 243.
Gustave Diderrich, Philadelphia.
Acquired by Russell Barnett Aitken.

Literature

Abercrombie & Fitch, New York, Untitled typescript list of antique firearms from the Gustave Diderrich collection, undated [ca. 1942-3], no. 87, priced at $750.00
Merrill Lindsay, One Hundred Great Guns, New York, 1967, p. 75
Agostino Gaibi, Armi da Fuoco Italiane, Busto Arsizio, 1978, p.258
Bruno Barbirolli, Repertorio storico degli archibugiari italiani dal XIV al XX secolo, Bologna, 2012, p. 491.

Exhibited

Metropolitan Museum of Art Loan Exhibition of European Arms and Armor, August 3 – September 27, 1931, no. 318, lent by Gustave Diderrich
Brooklyn Museum Loan Exhibition of European Arms and Armor Catalogue by Stephen V. Grancsay, June-August 1933, no. 266, lent by Gustave Diderrich

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

These unusual and colorful pistols are inscribed Schiazzano, the name of a small village in the south of Italy, near Sorrento, in the Bay of Naples (Campana). It is unclear from these apparently unique examples if the gunmaker had adopted the town’s name as his signature or was merely advertising the location of his workshop. While the form of the miquelet locks reflects Spanish influence and the pieced metal stock ornament echoes the well-known Brescian tradition (but employing iron rather than gilt brass), these pistols defy standard Italian firearms typology but perhaps represent a local south Italian tradition still awaiting examination.

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