Lot Essay
This is probably the finest pair of English 18th Century silver-mounted pistols extant, as well as the finest English pair in private hands
Henry Hadley is first recorded in the minutes of the Gunmakers' Company in 1735 and he died in 1773. He moved from the Minories to the more fashionable West End of London in 1749, where he worked for an exalted clientèle, although he was never free of the Gunmakers' Company. He is especially noted for a series of silver-mounted pistols with Spanish-style barrels, of which the present pistols are recognised as the finest, the others being in the Royal Collection at Windsor (two pairs, No.s 475, 494), and the Royal Armouries, H.M. Tower of London (a pair bearing the arms of the Duke of Marlborough, No.s XII. 1645/6). Of the four pairs, the present pair and the Marlborough pair are finished to the highest degree, with silver inlay and unmarked silver mounts of almost identical design. The mounts were presumably especially designed for Hadley, while the inlay appears to be by the same hand as that in the stock of the Kolbe air-gun in the Victoria and Albert Museum (No. 494-1894), and also of a fine fowling-piece by Griffin in the Capodimonte Museum at Naples (No. 2604).
The exceptionally fine engraving on the locks was probably the work of an independent professional engraver rather than one of Hadley's own workmen. It has been suggested that this was William Sharpe 'of the Little Minories London Ingraver', who is mentioned in Hadley's will, and who engraved the Great Seal of the Master General of Ordnance in 1762
Henry Hadley is first recorded in the minutes of the Gunmakers' Company in 1735 and he died in 1773. He moved from the Minories to the more fashionable West End of London in 1749, where he worked for an exalted clientèle, although he was never free of the Gunmakers' Company. He is especially noted for a series of silver-mounted pistols with Spanish-style barrels, of which the present pistols are recognised as the finest, the others being in the Royal Collection at Windsor (two pairs, No.s 475, 494), and the Royal Armouries, H.M. Tower of London (a pair bearing the arms of the Duke of Marlborough, No.s XII. 1645/6). Of the four pairs, the present pair and the Marlborough pair are finished to the highest degree, with silver inlay and unmarked silver mounts of almost identical design. The mounts were presumably especially designed for Hadley, while the inlay appears to be by the same hand as that in the stock of the Kolbe air-gun in the Victoria and Albert Museum (No. 494-1894), and also of a fine fowling-piece by Griffin in the Capodimonte Museum at Naples (No. 2604).
The exceptionally fine engraving on the locks was probably the work of an independent professional engraver rather than one of Hadley's own workmen. It has been suggested that this was William Sharpe 'of the Little Minories London Ingraver', who is mentioned in Hadley's will, and who engraved the Great Seal of the Master General of Ordnance in 1762