BY JOHN DAFTE, LONDON, CIRCA 1690

Details

A PAIR OF 22-BORE FLINTLOCK HOLSTER PISTOLS
By John Dafte, London, circa 1690
With barrels in three stages separated by mouldings, signed octagonal then sixteen-sided breech sections retaining some acanthus engraving, the next sections inscribed 'ID', rectangular tangs engraved with strawberry foliage, signed rounded locks also engraved with strawberry foliage, moulded full stocks (cracks and repairs, one fore-end tip replaced) each with a raised panel at the barrel tang, brass mounts, engraved pierced serpentine side-plates, spurred pommels with further strawberry leaf decoration, escutcheons each with a caricature human head, brass baluster ramrod-pipes (one replaced), and original iron-capped ramrods (some wear and surface pitting, one top jaw and screw replaced), London proof marks
20½in. (52.1cm.) (3)

Provenance

Compton Chamberlayne, Wiltshire, home of the Penruddock family

W. Keith Neal

Literature

W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, Great British Gunmakers 1540-1740, p. 215, plates 74 a-e

John S. Cooper & Kenneth J. Westwood, John Dafte Gunsmith, pp. 46-47, plates 4 a-c (a presentation copy of this book is sold with the pistols)

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

John Dafte (d. 1696) was apprenticed to Henry Phipps in the Blacksmiths' Company in 1660 and free of the Gunmakers' Co. in 1668. He supplied blunderbusses and pistols to the Rye House Conspirators in 1683, and was Master of the Gunmakers' Company in 1694

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