A Fine Scottish Heart Butt Flintlock Pistol by James MacKenzie of Brechin.
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11 ½” overall, 7 ¼” multi-stage round barrel with octagonal muzzle. The lock of Highland form with swan necked cock, stock of iron with incised line decoration, heart shaped butt. One ramrod pipe, ball trigger & pricker, long belt hook & iron rammer.
Circa 1730.
In very good crisp condition
James MacKenzie of Brechin, 1728-38 a maltster, brewer & gun maker.
See “The Scottish Pistol Its History, Manufacture & Design” by M. Kelvin pages 114-118, and “The Heart-Butt Pistols of East Scotland”, Scottish Art Review.
For a related pistol in the Royal Museum of Scotland described as 'unsigned', but with the characteristics associated with James MacKenzie of Brechin, c.1730 see Claude Blair and Robert Woosnam-Savage, "Scottish Firearms", 1995, pp. 29-29, fig. 44.