Lot Essay
The crest is that of Anson, probably for Thomas Anson, Viscount Anson of Shugborough and Orgrave, Staffordshire (1767-1818), presumably not the first owner of the pistols
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BY BENJAMIN GRIFFIN, LONDON, LONDON SILVER HALLMARKS FOR 1750
Details
A Fine Pair Of 24-Bore Silver-Mounted Flintlock Holster Pistols
By Benjamin Griffin, London, London silver hallmarks for 1750
With slightly belled two-stage Italian barrels with turned girdle, the breeches each with two gold-lined maker's marks of Cristiano Leoni of Pistoia (Neue Støckel 7774 and 7775), gold-lined touch-holes, engraved grooved tangs, rounded locks each with moulded border and signed on a foliate ribbon, moulded figured walnut full stocks (minor crack in one fore-end) carved in relief with a shell behind the barrel tang, full cast and chased silver mounts decorated with shells and foliage in relief, spurred pommels each with grotesque mask cap, engraved trigger-guards each with foliate finial, escutcheons with shell above and grotesque mask beneath, each engraved with owner's crest and two coronets, engraved silver ramrod-pipes, and original iron-capped wooden-tipped bone ramrods each with worm, in fine condition throughout, silver maker's mark JA
15½in. (39.4cm.) (2)
By Benjamin Griffin, London, London silver hallmarks for 1750
With slightly belled two-stage Italian barrels with turned girdle, the breeches each with two gold-lined maker's marks of Cristiano Leoni of Pistoia (Neue Støckel 7774 and 7775), gold-lined touch-holes, engraved grooved tangs, rounded locks each with moulded border and signed on a foliate ribbon, moulded figured walnut full stocks (minor crack in one fore-end) carved in relief with a shell behind the barrel tang, full cast and chased silver mounts decorated with shells and foliage in relief, spurred pommels each with grotesque mask cap, engraved trigger-guards each with foliate finial, escutcheons with shell above and grotesque mask beneath, each engraved with owner's crest and two coronets, engraved silver ramrod-pipes, and original iron-capped wooden-tipped bone ramrods each with worm, in fine condition throughout, silver maker's mark JA
15½in. (39.4cm.) (2)
Provenance
John Wigington
Literature
W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, Messrs Griffin & Tow and W. Bailes, p. 97, plates 37a-c
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.