AN EXTREMELY RARE FRENCH LONG WHEEL-LOCK HOLSTER PISTOL with slender two-stage barrel with gilt ribbed muzzle-ring and stepped gilt moulded breech engraved with conventional foliage and two rosettes, the rear section of the barrel fluted and cut with gilt stylised foliage and engraved with further gilt foliage beyond (gilding partly worn), full-length tang engraved with gilt panels of foliage, flat lock of French form with bevelled borders, struck with maker's mark DF under a crown in an oval (Neue Støckel 2365), the tail in the form of an elongated acorn, gilt fluted pan, gilt wheel-retaining bracket formed as a dolphin, and gilt stellate pan-cover release button, wooden full stock almost entirely covered with dark red lacquer (some losses) set with numerous tiny chips of mother-of-pearl and coloured bone, and minute brass shavings, all within brass lines, and inlaid with mother-of-pearl panels (one incomplete, one replaced) finely engraved with fruit, flowering foliage and stylised foliage, all heightened with red and green pigment, flattened lemon-shaped pommel with mother-of-pearl button finial, engraved mother-of-pearl strap above and beneath, and, on each side, an oval panel finely engraved with a vase and stylised foliage, pierced flat iron trigger-guard with plain support plate, plain scroll side-plate, engraved horn fore-end cap, engraved brass ramrod-pipe, and wooden ramrod (incomplete), early 17th Century32¾in.

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

AN EXTREMELY RARE FRENCH LONG WHEEL-LOCK HOLSTER PISTOL with slender two-stage barrel with gilt ribbed muzzle-ring and stepped gilt moulded breech engraved with conventional foliage and two rosettes, the rear section of the barrel fluted and cut with gilt stylised foliage and engraved with further gilt foliage beyond (gilding partly worn), full-length tang engraved with gilt panels of foliage, flat lock of French form with bevelled borders, struck with maker's mark DF under a crown in an oval (Neue Støckel 2365), the tail in the form of an elongated acorn, gilt fluted pan, gilt wheel-retaining bracket formed as a dolphin, and gilt stellate pan-cover release button, wooden full stock almost entirely covered with dark red lacquer (some losses) set with numerous tiny chips of mother-of-pearl and coloured bone, and minute brass shavings, all within brass lines, and inlaid with mother-of-pearl panels (one incomplete, one replaced) finely engraved with fruit, flowering foliage and stylised foliage, all heightened with red and green pigment, flattened lemon-shaped pommel with mother-of-pearl button finial, engraved mother-of-pearl strap above and beneath, and, on each side, an oval panel finely engraved with a vase and stylised foliage, pierced flat iron trigger-guard with plain support plate, plain scroll side-plate, engraved horn fore-end cap, engraved brass ramrod-pipe, and wooden ramrod (incomplete), early 17th Century 32¾in.

Details

Lot Essay

Lacquer decoration of this type is almost certainly derived from Japanese raden work and is extremely rare in a European context at this date.
This hitherto unrecorded pistol belongs to a very small group of early 17th Century French wheel-lock firearms stocked in this manner and preserved to-day in Vienna and Dresden. Two wheel-lock pistols, one in Vienna (No. WS.A1007) and another in Munich (No. W 832), although not stocked in the same manner, bear the same unidentified DF mark

A French gunstocker's casket with similar lacquer was sold in these Rooms, 29 October, 1986, lot 96

The engraving on the mother-of-pearl probably derives from the designs of Johann Theodore de Bry and Michel le Blond and is of a type widely used for the decoration of watches, cutlery, silver and firearms during the first half of the 17th Century

See H. Schedelmann, Die grossen Büchsenmacher, 1972, pp. 48-9 and 69, plate IX; J. Schöbel, Prunkwaffen, 1973, pl. 126; M. von Ehrenthal, Führer durch das Königliche Historiche Museum zu Dresden, 1899, p. 131; T. Lenk, The Flintlock, 1965, pl. 107; E. Schalkhaußer, Handfeuerwaffen, Munich, 1988, p. 113, No. 94

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