A Very Fine & Rare Pair of Silver Mounted Flintlock Holster Pistols with Original Holsters by Richard Dyer of London. 19 ½” overall, 12 ½” three-stage barrels, faceted breech sections engraved with foliate sprays & 'R. DYER' struck with marks of a cross in a square& London Proofs. Bevelled banana shaped lock plates engraved with scrolling foliage & 'DYER', swan necked cocks engraved en suite, full stocks of fine burr maple, domed silver butt caps engraved with large roses to the centres & with dart borders, separate silver grip spurs of scrolling form surmounted by imp masks, silver side plates of scrolling serpents in foliage, steel trigger guards. Wooden ramrods in ringed & beaded pipes, London proof. In their original holsters of heavy leather with iron wire reinforced tops, the tops with large covers of silver bullion embroidered red velvet incorporating pockets.
Circa 1680-90
Very fine early English pistols in good condition, some losses to silver side plates. Black jack leather holsters with bullion embellished covers are extraordinary rare, in very good condition for age, some moth damage & fading to velvet, silver bullion tarnished.
Richard Dyer apprenticed to Robert Silk in about 1656,then William Dalton 1667 & Joseph Stace 1668, Free of Gunmakers Co 1674. Proof piece 1677, Elected Assistant 1694, Master 1700, Contractor to the Ordnance 1780-1715 Hudson Bay Company 1687-1701. Died circa 1721
Single holster of similar form in the V&A and a single example from the contents of Littlecote House, in the Royal Armouries.