An Extremely Fine & Rare Brace of Earl of Hertford Holster Flintlock Holster Pistols by Charles Pickfatt, made for the Earl of Hertford.
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21" overall, 14” two stage 22 bore barrels, London proofed with the Gunmakers' Company view and proof marks, the maker’s mark ‘CP’ in cartouches, & ‘70’, engraved ‘Hartford’ under a coronet & ‘U90’ & ‘U179’ respectively. Rounded swan neck cocks, ‘banana’ shaped rounded locks signed ‘Pickfatt’, bridleless pans, trefoil finials to the feather springs. Walnut full stocks with carved aprons around the barrel tangs. Brass mounts, including long spurred butt caps with grotesque masks, engraved sideplates and escutcheons, one numbered ‘4’ and the other ‘V’, baluster ramrod pipes. Original brass capped wooden ramrods with steel worms.
Circa 1727.
Fine condition.
Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset, was styled Earl of Hertford until he succeeded to the Dukedom in 1748. He was Captain and Colonel of The Queen's Troop of Horse Guards from 1715 to 1740 and Colonel of the Royal Horse Guards from 1740 to 1750. As Colonel of a Troop of Horse he undoubtedly bought these pistols out of his own purse & when the Troop was disbanded he took them home to his country seat.
See “English Pistols & Revolvers” by John Nigel George, page 45, article by Lewis H Gordon, Jr in “The Canadian Journal of Arms Collecting”, Vol 5, No. 4 and “British Military Pistols and Associated Edged Weapons 1603-1887” by Robert Brooker, page 81 and figure 47.
Charles Pickfatt, son of Humphrey, traded from the corner of Bartlett's Buildings, Holborn (his father's address) from 1721 to 1757 and was a contractor to the Board of Ordnance from 1727 to 1757.