BY ROBERT DELANY, LONDON, CIRCA 1720

Details

An Unusual 16-Bore Flintlock Holster Pistol For Ball Or Shot
By Robert Delany, London, circa 1720
With slightly belled 18in. (45.7cm.) sighted barrel in three stages (surface pitted) with raised mouldings and traces of signature, copper-lined touch-hole, engraved grooved tang, signed border engraved rounded lock, the pan with raised rim, the steel deeply cut with five vertical grooves (cock repaired), moulded figured walnut full stock (minor bruising, fore-end tip replaced) carved in relief with acanthus foliage behind the barrel tang and ramrod tail-pipe, full brass mounts with very faint traces of gilding, pierced foliate side-plate, border engraved pommel with grotesque mask cap, trigger-guard with foliate finial, and foliate escutcheon engraved with viscount's coronet and the arms and motto of Carmichael, baluster ramrod-pipes, and original brass-capped wooden-tipped bone ramrod with worm (the mounts with some wear), London proof marks
25in. (63.5cm.)

Literature

W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, Great British Gunmakers 1540-1740, p. 411, plates 173a, b

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

The original owner was almost certainly John, Baron Carmichael (1701-1767), 3rd Earl of Hyndford, Viscount Inglisberry and Nemphar, and Lord Carmicheal of Carmichael, distinguished diplomatist, sent by King George II in 1741 to mediate between the King and the Empress Maria Theresa, resulting in the Treaty of Breslau in June 1742, and Hyndford's nomination as Knight of the Thistle. He was also sent to Russia (in 1744) and Vienna (in 1752)

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