Beschreibung:

(Five Centuries: Furniture, Paintings & Works of Art, 5th February 2020) SCARCE CASED PAIR OF 20 BORE FLINTLOCK DUELLING PISTOLS BY JOSEPH LODER LONDON CIRCA 1769 with sighted re-blued octagonal barrels with London view and proof marks, engraved London, the barrel tangs and cocks engraved with Neoclassical flowerheads and a shell at the tail, with a double row of roulettes at the breeches and traces of gold lines, flat stepped bolted locks signed Loder, with full figured walnut stocks with slab sided butts and escutcheons with initials AG, iron trigger guards with acorn finials and engraved flowerheads in a lozenge on the bows, with original horn-tipped lancewood ram rods with iron jaggs, in a re-fitted and lined period mahogany case with two way shagreen powder flask, a bullet mould, patch cutter, pricker, turn-screw, and spare flints, in a leather pouch with raised brass handle and later trade label, with original case key 8inch barrels Note: Joseph Loder was master of the Joiners Company in 1785. He was one of the main ‘Rough Stockers’ to the Board of Ordnance from 1769 to 1787, and a contractor to the United East India Company and the Royal Africa Corp. Neo-classical decoration on English pistols is very unusual, a style very fashionable during the period that Robert Adam was working in London. The bell flower was one of his favourite classical decorative motives, so perhaps these pistols were a special order for a fashionable client.