ǂAN EXCEPTIONAL PAIR OF 120 BORE FLINTLOCK BOX-LOCK POCKET PISTOLS WITH SILVER BARRELS, ACTIONS AND

ǂAN EXCEPTIONAL PAIR OF 120 BORE FLINTLOCK BOX-LOCK POCKET PISTOLS WITH SILVER BARRELS, ACTIONS AND MOUNTS, SIGNED MORTIMER, LONDON, TOWER PRIVATE PROOF MARKS, BIRMINGHAM SILVER HALLMARKS FOR 1774, MARK OF CHARLES FREETH with turn-off cannon barrels formed in two stages divided by raised mouldings, engraved with a band of foliage at the breeches and one numbered ~1~ beneath, engraved actions decorated with border ornament, signed ~Mortimer~ on a scroll carried by a ground of rococo scrolls on the left and inscribed ~London~ on a scroll carried by trophies-of-arms and rococo designs on the right, fitted with border-engraved iron steels and ring-neck cocks, engraved tangs decorated with rococo flowers, highly figured rounded walnut butts profusely inlaid with silver wire and engraved silver plaques forming a design of scrolling tendrils, flowers and rococo shells within a wrigglework frame enriched with minute silver pellets (small pieces of wire lifting), silver mounts comprising, sliding trigger-guard safety-catches with moulded borders and each engraved with a diamond-shaped panel on the bow, vacant silver escutcheons, and grotesque mask butt-caps with engraved borders 3.5 cm; 1 3/8 in barrels (2) Provenance Clay P. Bedford Collection (inv. no. 1512), one pistol Christie~s, London, 18th July 2002, lot 339, one pistol Bonhams, London, 30th November 2011, lot 391, the pair The Estate of Howard Lee Munson (1940-2019) Exhibited Early Firearms of Great Britain and Ireland from the Collection of Clay P. Bedford, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1971, cat. no. 197 Literature Clay P. Bedford and Stephen V. Grancsay, Early Firearms of Great Britain and Ireland from the Collection of Clay P. Bedford, exhibition catalogue, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1971, pp. 174 and 177 H. Lee Munson, The Mortimer Gunmakers 1753-1923, 1992, pp. 151-152, pl. 234. This pair of pistols are probably unique and, as Munson states, among the earliest known examples of H.W. Mortimer~s work.