A 28 BORE GERMAN SILVER-MOUNTED WHEEL-LOCK HOLSTER PISTOL BY WOLF HOCH, ARNSTADT, CIRCA 1660 with

A 28 BORE GERMAN SILVER-MOUNTED WHEEL-LOCK HOLSTER PISTOL BY WOLF HOCH, ARNSTADT, CIRCA 1660 with two-stage sighted barrel, signed over the breech (indistinct), and formed with a raised moulding incorporating the back-sight, slender tang, rounded lock retained by three side nails (one shortened), fitted with external wheel, sliding pan-cover with button release, and moulded dog, figured hardwood full stock (small cracks), moulded over the fore-end and carved with scrolls about the rear ramrod-pipe, silver mounts comprising trigger-guard with engraved acanthus finial, spurred pommel decorated with entwined scrolls of foliage and elaborate flowers (small dents), small moulded ramrod-pipe, silver fore-end cap, and wooden ramrod, perhaps the original 52.6cm; 20 3/4in

This maker is recorded in Shwarzburg-Sonderhausen (now in Thuringia) circa 1640-50. A pair of brass mounted pistols by this maker, formerly in the collections of Their Serene Hignesses the Princes zu Salm-Reifferscheidt-Dyck were sold Christie`s 15th April 1992, lot 257.