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A VERY RARE PAIR OF FRENCH WHEEL-LOCK HOLSTER PISTOLS SIGNED SAUVAGE A TOURNÉ, THE STOCKS INSCRIBED A. HONCHANT

CIRCA 1620-30

Details

A VERY RARE PAIR OF FRENCH WHEEL-LOCK HOLSTER PISTOLS SIGNED SAUVAGE A TOURNÉ, THE STOCKS INSCRIBED A. HONCHANT
Circa 1620-30
With slender tapering octagonal barrels very slightly swamped towards the muzzle, each engraved with a band of leaves at the muzzle, an olive branch on the breech, signed 'Sauvage' and engraved and pricked with foliage over the tang, strongly bevelled locks swept-back to a stepped bevelled tail, inscribed 'a Tourne' at the front, struck with a small rectangular mark, 'FC' beneath a pellet, finely engraved with formal arrangements of leaf ornament at the rear, the wheels decorated with fleur-de-lys stamps and each retained by a gilt-iron bracket fitted beneath the pan, each finely pierced and engraved with addorsed dolphins, engraved sliding pan-covers, engraved dogs each moving on an internally-fitted spring and retained by an engraved and gilt capstan screw, fruitwood full stocks stamped 'a Honchant' opposite the locks, fluted moulded fore-ends, separate 'fishtail' pommels fitted with oval caps of contrasting dark horn retained by a gilt-iron stud, iron trigger-guards each involving a gilt hexagonal panel pierced and engraved with foliage, gilt tripartite side-plates, engraved and gilt iron ramrod-pipes, gilt-brass fore-end caps finely engraved with a basket of fruit and flowers, and the ramrods each with gilt-brass tip engraved en suite with the ramrod-pipes (the stocks each with small repairs, one cracked opposite the lock, one ramrod replaced).
23 7/8in (60.7cm) (2)

Provenance

One from the Jeanne et Robert-Jean Charles Collection, Ader Tajan, Hôtel Drouot, 13 May 1993, lot 19.

The other from the Pierre Weité Collection, Montbéliard.

Literature

G.Dintroz, P-R. Royer and Alaric, Deux paires de pistolets à rouet français en collection privée, G.d.A., No.277, May 1997.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Pistols of this quality are included among those formerly in the Cabinet d'Armes of Louis XIII.

The combination of the fleur-de-lys stamps and the addorsed dolphins suggests the possibility that these pistols were ordered by Louis XIII in the expectation of presentation to the future Dauphin, Louis, later Louis XIV (born 1638 and becoming King at the age of five in 1643).

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