BY JOHN LAWRENCE OR JOHANN GOTTFRIED KOLBE (COLEBY) LONDON, CIRCA 1745

Details

A Very Rare Silver-Mounted Flintlock Tinderlighter
By John Lawrence or Johann Gottfried Kolbe (Coleby) London, circa 1745
Of 'Queen Anne' pistol form, with brass three-stage cannon barrel engraved with acanthus foliage and inscribed 'London' at the rear, the upper half of the barrel hinged on the left side and opened by backward pressure on the trigger to reveal a hinged brass tube holding the automatically lit taper, engraved brass tang, brass action signed 'Kolbe' below the steel-spring, engraved brass trigger-guard, figured walnut butt carved in relief with shells at the barrel tang, pierced foliate side-plate, cast and chased escutcheon with grotesque mask above and shell beneath, and grotesque mask pommel, silver maker's mark JA
10 5/8in. (27cm.)

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

For details of the two Kolbes working in London around the time of the present pistol's manufacture, see Howard L. Blackmore, 'Who was Kolbe?', J.A.A.S., vol. XIV, no. 2 (September 1992), pp. 41-63

Cf. a similar Kolbe tinderlighter formerly in the Clay P. Bedford Collection, exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in 1971 (cat. no. 194)

This form of tinderlighter appears to have been introduced in France, Germany and Italy in the 17th century. English examples are very scarce

Kolbe is the maker of the superb silver-mounted air gun, believed to have been made for King George II, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. 494-1894), which is one of the finest London-made firearms in existence

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