A FINE PAIR OF 38-BORE TUSCO-EMILIAN SNAPHAUNCE BELT PISTOLS

ONE SIGNED 'BRENTO' AND DATED 1763

Details

A FINE PAIR OF 38-BORE TUSCO-EMILIAN SNAPHAUNCE BELT PISTOLS
One signed 'Brento' and dated 1763
With slender two-stage barrels each decorated with engraved panels of scrollwork at the rear of the breech, in front of the turned girdle, and at the muzzle, shaped tangs engraved with foliage on a hatched ground, rounded locks (one inscribed and dated on the inside) chiselled in relief with scrolls, a mask, a demi-figure, profile heads, a bird's head, and, on each pan-cover, a dog's head, the heads of the retaining bolts each chiselled with a cherub-mask (one bolt and one top jaw replaced), moulded figured walnut full stocks (some repairs and restorations) partially carved in relief with scrollwork against a punched ground, the fore-ends each with a demi-figure, chiselled and pierced steel mounts decorated in low relief with scrollwork, monster-heads, demi-figures, and portrait busts, spurred pommels with pairs of demi-figures blowing trumpets, the escutcheons with coronet above and grotesque mask beneath, chiselled triggers each issuing from a bird's head, and wooden ramrods each with iron-mounted horn tip (some scattered surface pitting, one belt hook missing)
16in. (40.7cm.) (2)

Provenance

Gustav Didderich, Philadelphia

Exhibited

Loan Exhibition of European Arms and Armor, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 3 August-27 September 1931, cat. no. 310 (illustrated in the catalogue)

Lot Essay

For information on the gunmakers of Brento, see Nolfo di Carpegna, 'Notes on Central Italian Firearms of the Eighteenth Century', part I, J.A.A.S., vol. VII, no. 2, pp.18-19: 'Notes of the Firearms of the Tosco-Emilian Apennines', Arms and Armor Annual, vol. I, 1973 (R. Held, ed.), pp. 229-231

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