Lot 204
204
A RARE PAIR OF RUSSIAN SIX-SHOT FLINTLOCK REVOLVERS with three-stage barrels octagonal at the breech and with cannon muzzles, silver fore-sights, hand-rotated cylinders numbered from 1 to 6 and engraved with bouquets of flowers and foliage between flutes, alternating with bouquets inhabited by doves, plain front cover with hinged loading-gate, sliding cylinder release catches forming the rear sights, signed border engraved rounded locks with rollers (one cock replaced), figured walnut butts and fore-stocks (one fore-stock replaced) inlaid with silver wire scrollwork, engraved steel mounts, the trigger-guards with acorn finial, and wooden ramrods, signed Polinson, London, late 18th Century

Details
A RARE PAIR OF RUSSIAN SIX-SHOT FLINTLOCK REVOLVERS with three-stage barrels octagonal at the breech and with cannon muzzles, silver fore-sights, hand-rotated cylinders numbered from 1 to 6 and engraved with bouquets of flowers and foliage between flutes, alternating with bouquets inhabited by doves, plain front cover with hinged loading-gate, sliding cylinder release catches forming the rear sights, signed border engraved rounded locks with rollers (one cock replaced), figured walnut butts and fore-stocks (one fore-stock replaced) inlaid with silver wire scrollwork, engraved steel mounts, the trigger-guards with acorn finial, and wooden ramrods, signed Polinson, London, late 18th Century
16¾in. (2)

Lot Essay

Almost certainly by Ivan Polin, who worked in Tula from circa 1780 to circa 1810

Cf. another pair of six-shot flintlock revolvers, signed Ivan Polin, preserved in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Nos. 5181, 5186, illustrated in L. Tarassuk, Antique Arms at the Hermitage Museum, Nos. 471, 472. A further pair, by Kalesnikov of Tula, with gilt cylinders and mounts, is in the Russell B. Aitken Collection, New York, illustrated in Merrill Lindsay, One Hundred Great Guns, p. 151

Each pistol is engraved with later inventory number N.S. 1926

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