THE BARREL, LOCK, AND SOME OF THE MOUNTS BY HARMAN BARNE, CIRCA 1660, THE REMAINDER BY STEPHEN WELLS

Details

A Highly Unusual 42-Bore Flintlock Horseman's Pistol
The barrel, lock, and some of the mounts by Harman Barne, circa 1660, the remainder by Stephen Wells
With 24in. (61cm.) tapering three-stage barrel signed 'H. Barne' on the top of the octagonal breech and with pronounced ring at the muzzle bearing a bead fore-sight, plain tang, signed rounded border engraved lock, moulded figured walnut full stock with raised apron at the barrel tang, iron mounts including flat side-plate finely pierced and engraved with scrolling foliage involving demi-figures and a monster-head, scroll engraved globose pommel pierced for an attachable shoulder-stock, plain iron belt hook, three engraved baluster ramrod-pipes, and iron-capped ramrod, London proof marks
29½. (74.9cm.)

Provenance

The Barons Leigh, Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire (see lot 145)

Literature

W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, Great British Gunmakers 1540-1740, p. 116-7, plates 28 a-d

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

Stephen Wells was apprenticed to Harman Barne, gunmaker to Prince Rupert and King Charles II, and free of the Gunmakers' Company 1673
Neal and Back suggest that the pistol was incomplete at the time of Barne's death in 1661

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