VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus bu… Read more

An Extremely Rare Pair Of Scottish All-Metal Snaphaunce Belt Pistols With Left- And Right-Hand Locks

DATED 1619, ALMOST CERTAINLY BY JAMES LOW OF DUNDEE

Details

An Extremely Rare Pair Of Scottish All-Metal Snaphaunce Belt Pistols With Left- And Right-Hand Locks
Dated 1619, almost certainly by James Low of Dundee
Reconverted from flintlock, with slender multi-staged brass barrels each with raised mouldings and iron fore-sight, the flat surfaces finely engraved with strapwork enclosing 'fern' patterns, expanded flowers and a vacant shield-shaped panel, the rear of each breech engraved with the date and with pronounced slotted ramp, expertly replaced engraved bevelled brass locks each with an imitation of the mark of James Low, finely engraved brass stocks each with 'fish-tail' butt, and iron triggers, belt hooks (one partly replaced), and ramrods, retaining the original pair of lock mechanisms, converted from snaphaunce to flintlock in the early 18th century
16½in. (41.9cm.) (4)

Literature

The Swords and the Sorrows, exhibition catalogue, cat. no. 5:9, p. 67 (illustrated)

Exhibited

The Swords and the Sorrows, Culloden Commemorative Exhibition, Culloden, 16 April-20 September 1996

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

Scottish snaphaunce pistols are of the greatest rarity, and the 'fish-tail' butt is one of the most difficult to find, as most surviving examples are now in public collections. Dated examples range between 1598 and 1645
The present pistols are similar to two other pairs, each bearing the mark attributed to James Low. The first, made for King Louis XIII of France, is dated 1611, and the second is dated 1626 on the barrels and 1624 on the locks. The former pair is in the Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh (inv. nos. LH325/6), and the latter in the Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum, Kelvingrove (inv. nos. 4045 H/I)
A further pair (dated 1622, and with maker's mark 'AG') was formerly also in the W. Keith Neal Collection - see Great British Gunmakers 1540-1740, pp. 70-71, plates 6 a-c
The mark ascribed to James Low is also found on the unique pair of snaphaunce pistols with extending butts (dated 1614) in the R.T. Gwynn Collection, and Low is also almost certainly the maker of the only two surviving all-metal Scottish long guns, respectively in the Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh (inv. no. LH 419), and the Royal Armouries, Leeds (inv. no. XII. 1786)
Low was admitted freeman in Dundee on 2 October 1593

More from FINE ANTIQUE FIREARMS FROM THE W KEITH NEAL COLLECTION

View All