An Exceptional 120-Bore Wheel-Lock Pistol (Puffer) Made For A Boy

DATED 1586, PROBABLY SAXON

Details

An Exceptional 120-Bore Wheel-Lock Pistol (Puffer) Made For A Boy
Dated 1586, probably Saxon
With swamped blued three-stage barrel bevelled at the muzzle, the central section with converging flutes, the dated breech struck with maker's initials 'IN' within bands of punched decoration and retaining traces of original gilding, blued tang, blued flat lock with traces of gilding on the border, domed gilt-bronze wheel-cover engraved with fruit and foliage on a punched ground, gilt pan-cover release button in the form of a scallop, and gilt safety-catch, the cock engraved with a monster-head and with human profile head finial, fruitwood full stock profusely inlaid with engraved staghorn interlaced scrollwork bearing ball-flowers and inhabited by staghorn panels engraved with an owl, a squirrel, profile masks, and two hounds in pursuit of a hare, all between staghorn borders engraved with ropework, compressed segmented pommel inlaid with a roundel engraved with a warrior's head and with mirror designs of flowers and foliage, iron trigger-guard retaining some gilding, side-nails also with some gilding, engraved horn fore-end cap, and original horn-tipped ramrod, preserved in very fine condition throughout with much original finish
11in. (29.8cm.)

Lot Essay

Very few wheel-lock pistols made for children are recorded, and this is the finest example to appear on the open market. Only two other comparable pistols have been sold at auction in recent times. The first (undated, and without maker's initials) was offered by Sotheby & Co., London on 12 October 1970, lot 77 (7,500), and the second (dated 1586, and with initials 'IN' on the barrel) by Sotheby & Co., New York on 11 January 1994 (US$ 37,950). Both are closely similar to the present pistol, and all three were almost certainly made in the same workshop - the present pistol appears to be the pair to the one sold in New York in 1994. Of the three, the present pistol is in the finest state of preservation

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