BY A. MALBRANCK, LONDON(?), CIRCA 1650-60

Details

A Very Rare Pair Of 36-Bore Silver-Mounted Flintlock Pistols
By A. Malbranck, London(?), circa 1650-60
With two-stage barrels (one later) engraved with foliage at the muzzle, girdle, and rear of the breech, the breech sections octagonal then sixteen-sided, and signed in script on the top flat, engraved tangs, signed flat bevelled locks each retained by three side-nails and with horizontally acting sear, internal steel-spring, and safety-catch to the rear of the cock, the lock-plate and cock each engraved with foliage and a monster, the former with stepped rounded tail (one cock with old repair, and later top jaw and retaining screw), ebony full stocks (some cracks, chips, and repairs, mainly on one) each carved in relief with a spray of foliage behind the barrel tang, silver spurred pommels engraved with flowers and foliage, single silver ramrod-pipes of baluster form (one later), engraved silver fore-end caps (one replaced), later iron button triggers each working on a pin above the tail of the lock-plate, and later wooden ramrods (some surface pitting), London proof marks
10¾in. (27.3cm.) (2)

Literature

W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, Great British Gunmakers 1540-1740, pp. 137-8, plates 39a-c (one pistol only)

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

The safety-catch on these pistols holds the cock clear of the sear so that no damage can be done if the trigger is pulled, however violently
Cf. a somewhat similar pistol formerly in the Clay P. Bedford Collection, exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1971 (cat. no. 3)

For further examples of pistols of similar type see John S. Cooper, For Commonwealth And Crown, pp. 197-219

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