Lot Essay
Behr is recorded between about 1690 and 1740. His early work at Würzburg is rarely encountered and he is better known for his output between 1720 and 1740, when he was working in Liège and Maastricht
THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
A PAIR OF GERMAN FLINTLOCK HOLSTER PISTOLS with swamped barrels signed on the sighting flat and engraved with a martial trophy at the breech, brass back-sights and fore-sights (one fore-sight replaced), brass-lined touch-holes, flat bevelled locks each faced with brass and engraved with a sportsman firing his flintlock gun, his dog at his side, and on each tail with a bear beset by a hound, flat cocks each engraved with scrollwork (one top jaw and screw replaced), unusual angular steels (one repaired), moulded figured walnut full stocks carved with foliage in relief behind the barrel tangs (fore-ends replaced), gilt-bronze mounts cast and chased with foliage and strapwork in relief and with a grotesque mask on each trigger-guard, pierced foliate side-plates, pierced escutcheons each with a stylised coronet above and cherub-mask beneath, faceted ramrod-pipes, and later horn-tipped ramrods (barrels with some pitting, some wear to gilding), by Johann Jakob Behr, Würzburg, early 18th Century
Details
A PAIR OF GERMAN FLINTLOCK HOLSTER PISTOLS with swamped barrels signed on the sighting flat and engraved with a martial trophy at the breech, brass back-sights and fore-sights (one fore-sight replaced), brass-lined touch-holes, flat bevelled locks each faced with brass and engraved with a sportsman firing his flintlock gun, his dog at his side, and on each tail with a bear beset by a hound, flat cocks each engraved with scrollwork (one top jaw and screw replaced), unusual angular steels (one repaired), moulded figured walnut full stocks carved with foliage in relief behind the barrel tangs (fore-ends replaced), gilt-bronze mounts cast and chased with foliage and strapwork in relief and with a grotesque mask on each trigger-guard, pierced foliate side-plates, pierced escutcheons each with a stylised coronet above and cherub-mask beneath, faceted ramrod-pipes, and later horn-tipped ramrods (barrels with some pitting, some wear to gilding), by Johann Jakob Behr, Würzburg, early 18th Century
20¾in. (2)
20¾in. (2)