A fine pair of 40-bore central Italian Roman-lock belt pistols

CIRCA 1700

細節

A fine pair of 40-bore central Italian Roman-lock belt pistols
circa 1700
With slender two-stage barrels divided by turned mouldings and with pronounced muzzles each chiselled with a band of acanthus foliage in relief, the breech sections each with a flat panel and a chiselled grotesque mask in relief at the rear, rounded locks each with chiselled details and engraved with scrollwork, and on each tail with a grotesque mask, the inner surface of each lock border engraved and signed with maker's initials 'A.A.', moulded rootwood full stocks, moulded iron mounts including spurred pommels each with chiselled grotesque mask cap, pierced and chiselled side-plates each involving a putto and a winged demi-figure (belt hooks missing), and large pierced and chiselled escutcheons each centred on a portrait bust and with coronet above, fluted ramrod-pipes, and iron-tipped ramrods
20in. (50.7cm.) (2)

拍品專文

For information on pistols of this type see Nolfo di Carpegna, 'Notes on Central Italian Firearms of the 18th Century', Part II, J.A.A.S., No. 1, pp. 1-84. The only maker recorded by Carpegna with the initials AA is A. Agudi, but these pistols do not appear to conform to his known style of decoration. Cf. a gun with a similar lock in the Stibbert Collection, Florence (No. 620)