BY HANS STOCKMAN OF DRESDEN, EARLY 17TH CENTURY

Details

A PAIR OF SAXON WHEEL-LOCK HOLSTER PISTOLS
BY HANS STOCKMAN OF DRESDEN, EARLY 17TH CENTURY
With slender tapering two stage barrels round then octagonal with grooved sections ending in balls, scroll and star engraved breeches stamped with makers initials HS (Hans Stockman), short tangs with engraved stars. Flat locks, engraved sculptured dogs, push button releases pan covers, exposed wheels with punched dots, sculpted bridles. Dark fruitwood full stocks inlaid with engraved bone plaques (minor losses and replacements), sea monsters, tendrils, dots, monster tail engraved bone plaques at tails of locks, cartouches, engraved silver pommel collars, six-sided pear-shaped pommels with engraved alternating rosettes and clam shells, button finials (one replaced), engraved forward and rear ramrod pipes. Iron trigger guards. Wooden ramrods with engraved bone tips. (2)
31 ½ in.
The successful bidder will be responsible for arranging their own shipments or collecting in-person and will be responsible for applicable New York taxes.

Provenance

The Royal Saxon Armouries, Dresden.
Sotheby & Co., London, 20 June 1929, lot 9.
Dr. Dagobert D. Runes, Sotheby & Co., London, 11 June 1964, lot 50 (bought by E. Fairclough Limited for Russell Barnett Aitken).

Literature

Ivory Hammer, Sotheby & Co., 1963-4, p. 210.
Merrill Lindsay, One Hundred Great Guns, New York, 1967, p. 301.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

Pistols of this distinctive form, with straight stocks ending in pear-shaped pommels, appear to have been designed specifically for use by the guard of the Prince-Electors of Saxony and were manufactured in Dresden by a small number of court gunsmiths, most notably Hans Stockman (1590-1639), whose initials are struck on the barrels. The pistols’ elegant, slender profile and long, small bore barrels announce a new aesthetic, introduced around 1600, during the reign of Prince-Elector Christian II, that marks a sharp contrast to the shorter, heavy barreled Puffer form of pistols popular a generation earlier. A prolific craftsman, Stockman's work was represented by197 firearms, mostly pistols, in a 1667 inventory of the Saxon electoral armory.

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