AN UNUSUAL PAIR OF 22-BORE GERMAN FLINTLOCK HOLSTER PISTOLS

SIGNED LUDOVICUS FIDLER IN NEIS, EARLY 18TH CENTURY

Details

AN UNUSUAL PAIR OF 22-BORE GERMAN FLINTLOCK HOLSTER PISTOLS
Signed Ludovicus Fidler In Neis, early 18th Century
With swamped sighted barrels each with three-quarter length sighting flat and engraved on the breech section with the standing figure of Johann Wilhelm Joseph, Elector Palatine (reg. 1690-1716) wearing his electoral robes and bonnet and suspended from a collar, border engraved tangs each with applied brass back-sight, signed flat bevelled locks engraved with putti and mythological figures, moulded walnut full stocks (minor repairs) carved in relief with strapwork, engraved iron mounts, solid side-plates engraved with a stag-hunt, spurred pommels each with faceted button finial over a gilt-brass plate cast and chased with masks and demi-figures in relief, engraved faceted ramrod-pipes, horn fore-end caps, and horn-tipped ramrods, the pierced escutcheons each surmounted by a coronet and engraved with (later?) commemorative inscriptions 'Ioh. Wilhelm Curfürst Pfalz 4 Juni Marta (sic) Anna Princes Toscana 1691' (iron parts with some wear and surface pitting)
20½in. (52.1cm.) (2)

Lot Essay

The engraving on the breeches and the inscriptions on the escutcheons presumably refer to the marriage on 5 June 1691 of Johann Wilhelm Joseph, Elector Palatine, and Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici (1667-1743), daughter of Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany. 'Neis' is probably the town of Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, not far from Heidelberg, which was the principal seat, as well as the burial site of the Electors Palatine until 1777

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