A Brass Mounted Flintlock Holster Pistol by Heylin.14” overall, 8” swamped brass barrel, signed within a border ‘HEYLIN CORNHILL LONDON’ and stamped with London proofs and ‘I H’ barrelsmith’s mark, barrel & tang cut with a shallow sighting groove, brass border engraved lock signed ‘Heylin’. Broad safety bolt, swan necked cock, full stocked in walnut with raised shell moulding around the tang & tear drop behind lock, brass mounts comprising military trophy side plate & escutcheon, grotesque mask long eared butt cap, trigger guard decorated with a flower head on the bow & a foliate finial, turned ramrod pipes, brass tipped ebony ramrod with a worm.
Circa 1780
In good condition.
Joseph Heylin, Gunmaker, at the Cross Guns, Cornhill, 1757-1801. Made free of Gunmakers Co., by redemption, proof piece & mark, 1757. Elected Assistant, 1773; Master in 1777. Gunmaker and stone crossbow maker, 48 Cornhill, 1757-79; 100 Bishopsgate Within, 1780-1; Aldersgate Street 1796. Contractor to East India Co., 1773-7; Hudson Bay Co., 1775-7; African Merchants Co., 1760. Died 1801.