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Lot Essay
This belongs to a small group of such weapons described by the late John Hayward as representing 'the highest achievement of the Renaissance sword-cutler and gunmaker'. Three other closely similar pistol-swords are recorded, of which one is the following Lot in this sale. The others are respectively in the Muse de l'Arme, Paris (inv. no. PO 2838), and the Russell B. Aitken Collection, New York. Neither of these has a scabbard. Nothing is known of the early history of any of them, although their superb quality leaves no doubt that they were made for high-ranking members of the French court: 'ung coustellatz portant ung pistollet' listed in the 1558 inventory of goods of the deceased Anne de Montmorency, Grand Constable of France may in fact refer to one.
The wheel-lock mechanism is concealed inside the quillon-block, the only external signs of its existence being a hole for the spanner to engage the wheel-spindle, the heads of two catches for respectively opening the pan and holding the cock against the wheel (in lieu of a spring), and the trigger. The mainspring is spiral and contained in the grip
Similar compact wheel-locks with spiral springs also occur on a group of closely related French pistol-axes and maces, which are almost certainly all from the same workshop. One of these, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 0.4.3.39) can be identified in the inventory of King Louis XIII's Cabinet d'Armes, and probably belonged originally to King Henri II, for whose father, King Francis I, Leonardo da Vinci was working at the time of his death in 1519. One of the famous designs for wheel-locks by the latter in the Codex Atlanticus in the Ambrosian Library, Milan (folio 56v.b., 158r. in the new facsimile edition) involves a spiral spring, and it has been suggested that this may have inspired the production of this remarkable group of combination weapons. It has also been suggested that Leonardo was the inventor of the wheel-lock system of ignition (see J.P. Reverseau, Muse de l'Arme, Paris, Les armes et la vie, Paris, 1982, pp. 92-3; idem, Armes Insolites, Muse de l'Arme, Paris, 1990, pp. 56-59).
The wheel-lock mechanism is concealed inside the quillon-block, the only external signs of its existence being a hole for the spanner to engage the wheel-spindle, the heads of two catches for respectively opening the pan and holding the cock against the wheel (in lieu of a spring), and the trigger. The mainspring is spiral and contained in the grip
Similar compact wheel-locks with spiral springs also occur on a group of closely related French pistol-axes and maces, which are almost certainly all from the same workshop. One of these, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 0.4.3.39) can be identified in the inventory of King Louis XIII's Cabinet d'Armes, and probably belonged originally to King Henri II, for whose father, King Francis I, Leonardo da Vinci was working at the time of his death in 1519. One of the famous designs for wheel-locks by the latter in the Codex Atlanticus in the Ambrosian Library, Milan (folio 56v.b., 158r. in the new facsimile edition) involves a spiral spring, and it has been suggested that this may have inspired the production of this remarkable group of combination weapons. It has also been suggested that Leonardo was the inventor of the wheel-lock system of ignition (see J.P. Reverseau, Muse de l'Arme, Paris, Les armes et la vie, Paris, 1982, pp. 92-3; idem, Armes Insolites, Muse de l'Arme, Paris, 1990, pp. 56-59).
