A FRENCH THREE-SHOT FLINTLOCK PISTOL
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A FRENCH THREE-SHOT FLINTLOCK PISTOL

PARTLY CIRCA 1640-50

Details
A FRENCH THREE-SHOT FLINTLOCK PISTOL
Partly circa 1640-50
With russet tapering barrel retained on a short bar projecting from a triple-lobed plate fitted over the breech and also covering the chamber mouths, three hand-rotated chambers released by a catch ahead of the trigger-guard and moving within a later brass sleeve, the latter engraved with flowers and a hunting scene, bevelled back-action lock engraved with a design of scrolling flowers involving a monster and a bird-of-prey (the mainspring and the upper half of the cock each replaced), ebonised butt incised and gilt with flowers and a bird matching the lock (patched repairs), finely engraved iron side-plate formed as a winged part-serpentine dog, and large gilt-bronze pommel cast in two halves as the head of a human grotesque (trigger-guard replaced, ramrod missing).
28¼in (71.8cm)
Provenance
Frank E. Bivens, Jr.
Literature
F. Theodore Dexter, Half Century Scrapbook of Vari-type Firearms, 1960, p.160, pl.75, No. 1073

The engraved designs for the lock and the side-plate are very similar to those published in Paris in 1657 by François Marcou and engraved by C. Jaquinet.
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium

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