BY ANDREW DOLEP, LONDON, EARLY 18TH CENTURY

Details

A FINE PAIR OF 16-BORE FLINTLOCK HOLSTER PISTOLS
By Andrew Dolep, London, early 18th Century
With tapering barrels in two stages divided by a silver band, and each chiselled in relief at the breech section with vacant cartouche and acanthus foliage, and with raised mouldings at the rear, silver fore-sights, gold-lined touch-holes, engraved grooved tangs, border engraved rounded locks each with waved raised border and signed 'Dolep Londini' (tail of one lock chipped, combs of both cocks incomplete), moulded walnut full stocks carved in relief at the fore-ends and barrel tangs with acanthus foliage, and inlaid with scrollwork in silver wire, full cast and chased brass mounts, engraved spurred pommels each with grotesque mask cap, pierced foliate side-plates each involving a profile head, trigger-guards with acanthus finial, pierced escutcheons engraved with owner's crest and surmounted by a grotesque mask, baluster forward ramrod-pipes (the rear pipes apparently working replacements), and horn-tipped ramrods, one with worm (some wear, most of one trigger-guard replaced, barrels with scattered surface pitting), London proof marks
16¼in. (41.2cm.) (2)

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 This lot is subject to Collection and Storage charges

Lot Essay

Andreas Rheinhold Dolep, 'Dutchman', was one of the most important London gunmakers of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He was born in about 1648. In 1681 he worked for Sir Philip Howard, Commander of the Queen's Troop of Horseguards, and was fined in 1686 for unproved guns, but made free of the Gunmakers Company by redemption in the same year at the request of Lord Dartmouth. He was granted denization in 1691 and married in 1687. He died in 1713

Dolep made fine and ingenious firearms, many of them multi-shot

More from MODERN SPORTING GUNS AND ANTIQUE ARMS AND ARMOUR

View All