BY GRIFFIN & TOW, LONDON, LONDON SILVER HALLMARKS, CIRCA 1771

Details

A Fine Cased Pair Of 22-Bore Flintlock Box-Lock Pistols
By Griffin & Tow, London, London silver hallmarks, circa 1771
With fixed three-stage cannon barrels each signed on the upper side of the breech, and each with detachable pan and steel assembly, leaving only the raised central touch-hole in place, signed finely engraved actions decorated with rococo ornament, engraved thumbpiece safety-catches also locking the steels, swelling flat-sided finely figured walnut butts, silver grotesque mask butt-caps, cast and chased silver escutcheons surmounted by a Classical helmet and engraved with owner's crest and initials 'JP', finely engraved trigger-guards, iron belt hooks, and original horn-tipped ramrods (some small patches of rust spotting): in their lined and fitted mahogany case (key-hole escutcheon missing) with accessories including white metal powder-flask, the lid with flush-fitting carrying handle, and circular escutcheon engraved with the same crest and initials as the pistols, London proof marks, silver maker's mark of John King
11¾in. (29.8cm.)

Provenance

D. Donald

Literature

W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, Messrs Griffin & Tow and W. Bailes, p. 113, plate 49

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

For a discussion of this type of detachable pan and steel, the purpose of which is obscure, see Jonathan Barrett, 'Six Oddities of English Flintlock Construction', Art, Arms and Armour, vol. I, pp. 393-4. The system was used by at least three leading London firms - Twigg, Wogdon, and Griffin & Tow. See also lot 204

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