A FINE 20 BORE FRENCH FLINTLOCK HOLSTER PISTOL BY LAROCHE A PARIS, CIRCA 1740

A FINE 20 BORE FRENCH FLINTLOCK HOLSTER PISTOL BY LAROCHE A PARIS, CIRCA 1740 with blued swamped barrel encrusted with gold scrolls, flowers, monsterheads and exotic birds on a matted ground at the muzzle and breech, the latter incorporating a mask and signed over the flat in gold letters within a beadwork frame, silver fore-sight on a bed of matching gold scrolls (the gold with small losses and restorations), gold vent, gold-encrusted tang en suite, border-engraved stepped bevelled lock engraved with a boar on the tail, signed beneath the pan and engraved with Diana the huntress resting with a hound, full stock carved with a moulding over the fore-end, scrolling foliage centring on a grotesque mask behind the rear ramrod-pipe and monsterhead scrolls on each side of the tang (the fore-end repaired, the butt cracked through and expertly repaired), engraved blued iron mounts comprising trigger-guard with foliate terminal, spurred pommel decorated with a gold classical warrior bust profile within a foliate frame, scrolling silver openwork side-plate involving a profile warrior bust and a serpent, silver escutcheon decorated with the crowned arms of a Bavarian prince, a pair of faceted ramrod-pipes, and later ramrod 36.7 cm; 14 1/2 in barrel Jean Baptiste Laroche was the most outstanding gunmaker in Paris in the mid-18th century. He specialized in making firearms that were presented by the King of France to foreign potentates. He was granted a brevet de logement in the Galeries du Louvre on 21st August 1743 and was later joined by his son who succeeded to the logement in 1763. See Hayward 1963, pp. 182-183 and Lenk 1965 pp. 113-114.