An Extremely Rare Pair of Double Flintlock Single Trigger Turn Off Pistols For Certainty Of Fire By Barbar,
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13 ¾” overall, 6 ½” turn-off cannon barrels, border engraved breeches each signed ‘Barbar London’ London proof marks & Lewis Barbar's barrelsmith's mark beneath, decorated with foliage at the rear with three graduated spheres along the top, border engraved tangs decorated with foliage each with retaining screw behind the trefoil extending over the breech, border engraved action, cocks, steel mainspring & trigger operating both cocks simultaneously & firing the same charge, chiselled steel springs, moulded figured rounded butts carved with a shell behind the barrel tang, trigger guards each engraved with a decorative oval on the bow. Cast and chased silver mounts comprising foliate escutcheons each engraved with owner's monogram, border engraved spurred pommels with grotesque mask butt cap within a border of scrolls & shells.
Circa 1740.
Very rare in English gun making, one other pair also by Barbar known. In good condition with minor repairs, one cock replaced, two top jaws & two steels refaced.
These pistols were each in prestigious collections before being reunited:
Provenance
Pistol A: Joe Kindig Jr. Collection
Pistol B:
Clay P. Bedford Collection, 1229
Exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1971, cat. no. 60
Literature
Lewis Winant, Firearms Curiosa,[A] 1956, pp. 226 and 229, pl. 256
Clay P. Bedford and Stephen V. Granscay, [B] Early Firearms of Great Britain and Ireland from the Collection of Clay P. Bedford, exhibition catalogue, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1971, pp. 67-69, no. 60 (illustrated).