Lot 244
244
VARIOUS PROPERTIES
A PAIR OF FRENCH FLINTLOCK HOLSTER PISTOLS with blued barrels damascened in gold with a bust of Mars beneath a baldachin at the breech, with scrollwork around the silver fore-sight, with double gold lines at the muzzle, and signed in gold on the sighting flat, engraved tangs, signed border engraved bevelled locks each decorated with a seated figure of Mars, and a martial and musical trophy respectively on the stepped tail, engraved cocks (one broken), English figured walnut full stocks (fitted during the pistol's working lives), blued steel mounts chiselled in low relief with masks, shells and foliage on a gilt fishroe ground, spurred pommels, the caps chiselled with a further bust of Mars, pierced side-plates each involving a vacant oval escutcheon, and horn-tipped ramrods, by Brion, Paris, circa 1715

Details
A PAIR OF FRENCH FLINTLOCK HOLSTER PISTOLS with blued barrels damascened in gold with a bust of Mars beneath a baldachin at the breech, with scrollwork around the silver fore-sight, with double gold lines at the muzzle, and signed in gold on the sighting flat, engraved tangs, signed border engraved bevelled locks each decorated with a seated figure of Mars, and a martial and musical trophy respectively on the stepped tail, engraved cocks (one broken), English figured walnut full stocks (fitted during the pistol's working lives), blued steel mounts chiselled in low relief with masks, shells and foliage on a gilt fishroe ground, spurred pommels, the caps chiselled with a further bust of Mars, pierced side-plates each involving a vacant oval escutcheon, and horn-tipped ramrods, by Brion, Paris, circa 1715
20¼in. (2)

Lot Essay

Believed to have belonged to John, 2nd Earl of Stair, and to have been presented to him by Louis XIV

Stair fought in Malborough's campaigns and was a brigadier at the battle of Oudenarde in 1708, after which he carried the victory despatches. He was sent to the Court of Louis XIV in 1715 on a diplomatic mission, and was appointed Ambassador to the Court of Versailles after the death of the King. At the battle of Dettingen in 1743 he was second-in-command under George II

The pistols passed to his nephew William, 4th Earl of Dumfries and Stair, then to William's nephew Patrick, 5th Earl of Dumfries, and thence by descent within the family

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