A RARE EARLY FLINTLOCK WENDER PISTOL, DUTCH OR NORTH GERMAN, CIRCA 1655-60

A RARE EARLY FLINTLOCK WENDER PISTOL, DUTCH OR NORTH GERMAN, CIRCA 1655-60 with turn-over barrels formed in two stages, one with a mark struck on the breech (traces only), fitted with a raised iron figure-of-eight ring over the muzzles and released by a catch in front of the trigger-guard, bevelled flat lock struck with maker~s mark behind its chamfered leading edge, tapering to a rear finial chiselled as a stylised monster~s head, and fitted with ring-necked straight cock engaging a dog safety, ebonised wooden butt fluted about the upper breech tang (expertly repaired beneath the lock), globular pommel inlaid with contrasting delicate brass lines and with a brass collar (expertly restored), inset with iron button finial, deeply fluted ebonised fore-end formed of two halves, iron ramrod-pipe (expertly restored) and iron trigger-guard (later ramrod) 64 cm; 25 3/8 in Provenance The Armoury of the Princely house of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, (inv. no. 334), removed from Schloss Langenburg, sold in this room, 3rd December 2014, lot 231. The maker~s mark on the lock is apparently unrecorded (the initials MH above a hand). A closely comparable pistol, unmarked but possibly from the same workshop, was in the collection of the late H.L.Visser; see Puype 1996, Volume I, Part 3, cat. no. 507, pp. 38-9. See also the early Wender gun originating from the same armoury, also sold in this room, lot 275.