A Pair Of 20-Bore Flintlock Holster Pistols

A Pair Of 20-Bore Flintlock Holster Pistols By S. Blanckle (Sic), Circa 1705 With slightly shortened two-stage barrels, plain tangs, signed border engraved rounded locks each engraved with characteristic strawberry foliage with monster-head terminals, cocks en suite, moulded highly figured rootwood full stocks (one fore-end partly replaced at the muzzle, small chip beneath the tail of one lock, back of one butt with minor old worm holes), iron mounts comprising side-plates each pierced and chiselled as a scrolling foliate monster, vacant escutcheons, spurred pommels engraved en suite with the locks, and trigger-guards each with foliate finial, turned baluster ramrod-pipes, and later horn-tipped ramrods, one with iron cap and worm (some wear and light pitting), indistinct London proof marks (2) 29.7 cm. and 30 cm. barrels Footnotes: Provenance Christie's South Kensington, The J.C.L. Knapton Collection of Antique Firearms, 28 February 1990, lot 98 The Richard Garrett Collection sold in these Rooms, 28 November 2018, lot 295 The Penrose Collection Literature W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, Great British Gunmakers 1540-1740, 1984, pp. 330-332, pl. 136 (one pistol only) Samuel Blanckley, son of John, was free of the Gunmakers' Company in 1705. He was Gunmaker to Ordnance between 1704 and 1708, and was Beadle of the Gunmaker's Company between 1734 and 1750, the year of his death For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing