Felix Werder (1591-1673) gunmaker and goldsmith, was a member of the Zürich Goldsmith's guild, of which he became a master in 1616. His earliest known firearm is dated 1630. The present pistols, the only known double-barrelled weapons by Werder, are similar to the pair at Skokloster (No.5715/6), and probably pre-date the garniture of two pistols and a carbine presented to the city authorities of Zürich in 1652, now divided between the Schweizerisches Landesmuseum (No.K.Z. 5316/17), and the Waffensammlung in Vienna (No. A-1454). In all about thirty firearms by Werder are known to have survived, most of them wheel-locks, and relatively few of them signed.
Werder's innovation, incorporated in the pistols offered for sale, was the manufacture of strong thin brass barrels by a cold-hammering process

These pistols are also remarkable in being among the earliest flintlock double-barrelled pistols known with single-trigger mechanisms