Antique Arms, Armour & Militaria - Thomas Del Mar

392
392
A PAIR OF 25 BORE FLINTLOCK HOLSTER PISTOLS WITH
LEFT-AND RIGHT-HAND LOCKS BY A DU COMMUN
WARWICK, LATE 17TH/EARLY 18TH CENTURY
with two-stage barrels formed with a short chiselled flat
and a foliate terminal over the breech, border-engraved
tangs, rounded locks engraved in the French taste with
scrolling foliage incorporating a putti, an exotic bird and a
reclining nude, the right-hand lock signed on the lower
edge and inscribed 'Warwick' beneath the steel spring,
chiselled steels each decorated with a flower in a vase on
the front, figured walnut full stocks moulded over the foreends,
and carved with an acanthus moulding in low relief
behind the barrel tangs, steel mounts comprising solid
bevelled side-plates engraved with border ornament and
strawberry foliage terminating in serpents heads, spurred
trigger-guards, a pair of moulded ramrod-pipes, and vacant
escutcheons en suite with the trigger-guards (later ramrods,
the steel parts with areas of pitting and patinated
throughout)
42.5cm; 18Nin
(2)
184
It would appear that these pistols were made in the early
18th Century using the locks, mounts and barrels from a
double barrelled pistol of circa 1690. Abraham du
Commun is first recorded in Warwick on the south west
part of the High Street where his house (and presumably
shop) was the first to be destroyed by fire on 5th
September 1694, for which he was awarded £7. Unlike his
contemporary Nicholas Paris little more is known about
him. He had a son of the same name who apprenticed to
Henry Anthonison and was turned over to John Smart, in
the London Gunmaker's Company, circa 1715.
£3500-4500