BY TWIGG & BASS, LONDON, CIRCA 1790

Details

A Fine Pair Of 32-Bore Flintlock Duelling Pistols
By Twigg & Bass, London, circa 1790
With rebrowned twist octagonal sighted barrels each with gold line, gold-lined crowned maker's stamp and gold-lined touch-hole, shaped tangs finely engraved with flowers, foliage, and a bird, all on a stippled ground, signed detented locks each with safety-catch also locking the steel, moulded border, roller, gold-lined semi-rainproof pan, and original blued finish on the internal working parts, figured walnut full stocks (minor bruising), flat-sided chequered butts, engraved iron mounts including trigger-guards with large pineapple finial, silver escutcheons engraved with owner's crest, and original ramrods, one with worm, the other with iron powder-measure (some surface pitting), London proof marks
15in. (38.1cm.) (2)

Literature

W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, Great British Gunmakers 1740-1790, pp. 56, 154, plates 159-60

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

Cf. a very similar cased pair of duelling pistols sold from the Wilfrid Ward Collection in these Rooms, 27 October 1993, lot 82

Duelling pistols by this partnership are rare. Neal and Back, op. cit., list only six pairs

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