BY JAMES YATES, LONDON, CIRCA 1690

Details

A Pair Of 26-Bore Flintlock Holster Pistols
By James Yates, London, circa 1690
With three-stage barrels, the breech sections octagonal then sixteen-sided, signed on the top flat, and engraved at the rear with strawberry foliage, engraved tangs, rounded locks engraved with further strawberry foliage, moulded figured walnut full stocks (minor bruising) each carved in relief with foliage behind the barrel tang and rear ramrod-pipe, large iron spurred pommels engraved with strawberry foliage, the remaining mounts of brass, including engraved pierced scroll side-plates, large escutcheons engraved with owner's crest, a dragon passant regardant gorged with a coronet, and brass-capped ramrods, London proof marks
17½in. (44.5cm.) (2)

Literature

W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, Great British Gunmakers 1540-1740, pp. 308-9, plate 125

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

James Yates was free of the Gunmakers' Company in 1678. The last documentary reference to him is in 1707
These pistols appear to have been modernized during their working lives by the addition of barrel-bolts and a hooked breech, and were probably restocked at the same time

More from FINE ANTIQUE FIREARMS FROM THE W KEITH NEAL COLLECTION

View All