A Fine Pair of Queen Anne Pistols by H. Delaney
A Fine Pair Of 42-Bore Flintlock Turn-Off Pocket Pistols by H. Delany, London, Circa 1730. With two-stage cannon barrels, the breeches engraved ‘London’ in front of a band of foliage, foliate engraved tangs, border engraved actions (one steel expertly replaced, one cock repaired) each signed beneath the steel-spring, engraved safety-catches behind the cocks, engraved iron trigger-guards, moulded rounded figured butts carved in relief with a shell behind each barrel tang and finely inlaid with interlaced scrollwork and flower-heads in silver wire heightened with silver pins, cast and chased silver mounts comprising pierced foliate side-plates, vacant escutcheons each with grotesque mask above, and lightly engraved butt-caps each involving a foliated grotesque mask (scattered minor wear and surface pitting), London proof marks and maker’s mark (2)
4 cm. barrels
Provenance:
One pistol, Christie’s London, Fine Antique Arms and Armour, 19 December 1979, lot 248
Previously sold at Bonhams London, Antique Arms & Armour, 18th April 2012, lot 293
Literature:
The other pistol, Norman Dixon, Georgian Pistols …, 1971, pp. 117-119, pls. 67 and 68
Henry Delany (or Delaney), a Huguenot, was admitted to the freedom of the London Gunmakers’ Company in 1715. He is recorded as a maker of breech-loading sporting guns and silver-mounted pistols, and was also the maker of a large crossbow with built-in cranequin in the collection of the Marquis of Bath at Longleat. See J.F. Hayward, ‘The Huguenot Gunmakers Of London’, J.A.A.S., vol. VI, no. 4 (December 1968), pp. 124-5
Dimensions:
Bore: 42 Bore
Barrel Length: 1.5 Inches (3.81 cm)
Overall Length: 6 Inches (15.24 cm)
£0.00
