A FINE AND RARE GERMAN 25-BORE WHEEL-LOCK HOLSTER PISTOL DATED 1610, 27in. overall, with three-s

A FINE AND RARE GERMAN 25-BORE WHEEL-LOCK HOLSTER PISTOL DATED 1610, 27in. overall, with three-stage barrel with slightly flared muzzle, the muzzle section round with chiselled girdle, the middle section octagonal to round and decorated in low relief with slender tapering ‘blades’ with sunken dots between, engraved dated octagonal breech section struck with the shield-shaped maker's mark, and short iron tang, flat lock struck with a mark on the tail, flat wheel engraved with scrollwork and retained by a bracket, and manual pan-cover, the wheel, pan fence and cock all lightly engraved with scrollwork, blackened full stock with straight grip and fish-tail-shaped butt, the whole decorated with bone panels engraved with foliage inhabited by monsters and on the side-plate with a mythical scene involving a young (virgin) woman with a unicorn, and a coat of arms, the panels bordered by a thin inlaid bone line, engraved bone ramrod-pipes, iron baluster trigger and plain trigger-guard (possibly replaced), and later bone-tipped ramrod.