An Exceptional 88-Bore Flintlock Seven-Barrel Box-Lock Pepperbox RevolverBy John Twigg, London, circa 1781-87With hand-rotated bright turn-off barrels, border line engraved breech-block numbered to correspond with the barrels, rounded border engraved breech-housing, bright border engraved action signed within an oval against a martial trophy over each side, the left side with a Britannia shield and foliage suspended from a ribbon, the right side surmounted by a bird, engraved thumbpiece safety-catch also locking the steel and retaining traces of original blueing, adjustable blued steel-spring with rollers, wing-headed tension adjuster on the left side and barrel assembly retainer on the right, trigger-guard decorated with a bird amid foliage on the bow, flat-sided figured rounded butt (minor old bruising), and in fine condition apart from some minor rust staining 7.5 cm. barrels Footnotes:ProvenanceMrs. A.C. Eccles, Christie's London, Fine Arms and Armour, 8 December 1969, lot 176 (1,750 gns. to Neal)Clay P. Bedford Collection, Phoenix, Arizona (no. 1506)Christie's London, Fine Antique Arms and Armour..., 20 November 1991, lot 300 (£12,650 including premium, to the W. Keith Neal Foundation, P664)Christie's London, Fine Antique Firearms from the W. Keith Neal Collection, 25 October 2001, lot 202ExhibitedThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1971, cat. no. 199The Game Fair, Shuttleworth Old Warden Park, 27-29 July 2001LiteraturePeter Hawkins, The Price Guide to Antique Guns and Pistols, 1973, p.194The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Early Firearms of Great Britain and Ireland from the Collection of Clay P. Bedford, 1971, p. 177W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, Great British Gunmakers 1740-1790, 1975, pp. 54-5 and 163, pls. 149-150Clay P. Bedford (1903-1991) was involved in a host of large-scale construction projects during his distinguished career with Kaiser Industries. These included the Central Highway in Cuba and the Boulder Dam. He was also a committed and knowledgeable collector, initially of Huguenot silver, and subsequently of British, then Continental antique firearms. Highlights from his very extensive firearms collection (much of it acquired from Keith Neal) were exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1971, and at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, in 1977. The collection is now dispersedThis pistol, probably the finest surviving example of the later type of flintlock pepperbox revolver, fires the first five barrels individually, and the last two together, giving an impressive finaleFor further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
