A 28 BORE FRENCH FLINTLOCK HOLSTER PISTOL BY JEAN LIEBEAU A SEDAN, CIRCA 1680 with two-stage sigh

A 28 BORE FRENCH FLINTLOCK HOLSTER PISTOL BY JEAN LIEBEAU A SEDAN, CIRCA 1680 with two-stage sighted barrel stamped with the barrelsmith`s mark in a horseshoe-shaped recess over the breech and with traces of a signature, plain tang, rounded lock engraved and chiselled with scrolls on the tail, signed in full on either side of a further scroll beneath the pan, chiselled cock (the upper portion missing), pierced with a delicate scroll behind the comb, rootwood full stock (the fore-end cracked and chipped), carved with a scrolling leafy tendril about the rear ramrod-pipe, inlaid with silver wire scrolls over the fore-end about the trigger-guard and on the butt, the tang enclosed by a steel plaque pierced and engraved with a symmetrical arrangement of scrolling tendrils involving exotic birds, reclining figures and a green man mask, finely decorated steel mounts, comprising side-plate pierced and chiselled with birds and hounds inhabiting leafy tendrils issuant from a moustachioed head, spurred pommel pierced and engraved with a band of foliage and masks, trigger-guard with a cherubic mask on the bow, delicate pierced mouldings at each end and pierced leafy terminal, a pair of ramrod-pipes, and wooden ramrod 50.5cm; 19 7/8in

Jean Liebeau is recorded in Sedan, Ardennes, circa 1670.

During the third quarter of the 17th Century Sedan was an important seat of gunmaking. This declined following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 though it is still mentioned as a centre for gunmaking as late as 1735 in a German Encyclopaedia. See J. F. Hayward 1963, p.42. The influence of Parisian gunmakers and contemporary pattern books is evident in this pistol.