BY JOHN MANTON & SON, DOVER STREET, LONDON, 6384, CIRCA 1815

Details

A Fine Cased Pair Of 48-Bore Flintlock Duelling Pistols
By John Manton & Son, Dover Street, London, 6384, circa 1815
With scratch rifled signed browned twist octagonal sighted barrels (some discolouration and minor surface rust), case-hardened recessed patent sloping breeches engraved with martial trophies and each with two platinum lines and platinum-lined touch-hole, finely engraved case-hardened tangs each incorporating the back-sight, case-hardened signed engraved detented serial numbered locks each with safety-catch, roller, V-shaped rainproof pan, and signed patent steel with pierced lip, figured walnut half-stocks (one fore-end with small repair), chequered butts, finely engraved blued iron mounts including serial numbered trigger-guards, blued trigger-plates each with pineapple finial, silver escutcheons engraved with the Lowther crest, horn fore-end caps, original brass-tipped ramrods, and some original finish: in original lined and fitted mahogany case with accessories including three-way flask covered in leather painted in imitation of tortoiseshell, and original serial numbered bullet mould, the lid with trade label for circa 1815-20, the exterior with flush-fitting carrying handle and circular escutcheon engraved with the same crest as the pistols
15¼in. (38.8cm.)

Provenance

The Earls of Lonsdale, Lowther Castle, Cumberland, house sale, Maple & Co. and Thomas Wyatt, F.V.A., 16 April 1947, probably part of lot 717 ('eleven old guns and pistols', £220 to Neal)

Literature

W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, The Mantons: Gunmakers, p. 93, plate 23
W. Keith Neal, 'Pistols for Two', p. 166 (illustrated)
W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, British Gunmakers Their Trade Cards, Cases and Equipment 1760-1860, plate 404
D.H.L. Back, The Mantons 1782-1878, p. 43, plate 17

Special notice

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

Further details

END OF SALE

Lot Essay

Almost certainly made for William Lowther, 5th Viscount and 2nd Earl Lonsdale (1757-1844), son and heir of the Rev. Sir William Lowther, Bt., of Swillington, Yorks. In 1788 he succeeded his father as 2nd Baronet, and in 1802 his cousin, the Earl of Lonsdale, in the Viscountcy and Barony of Lowther of Whitehaven. In 1807 he was himself created Earl of Lonsdale, and then a Knight of the Garter. He served as an MP between 1780 and 1802, and as an officer in the 8th Regiment of Foot, and was responsible, with the architect Sir Robert Smirke, for the creation of Lowther Castle in its pseudo-Gothic splendour, where he was a generous patron of artists and writers. However, his great passion was foxhunting - according to Robert Smirke, the painter, 'he keeps about fifty hunters'

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