A Very Fine Cased Pair of 32 Bore Saw Handled Duelling Pistols

Ref: 583

Price: £29,950

Maker: H.W. Mortimer & Son, s/n 1324

Date: circa 1810

Each pistol with 9 ¾ inch browned twist octagonal sighted barrel signed H.W. MORTIMER & SON, LONDON. GUN MAKERS TO HIS MAJESTY along the top flat and rifled up to about an inch from the muzzle, with a single platinum line at the breech and platinum lined touch hole, grooved case hardened tang engraved with foliate border and incorporating the rear sight, signed case hardened border engraved serial numbered detented lock decorated with a martial trophy on the tail, engraved safety slide, rainproof pan, blued steel spring with roller and foliate engraved ‘French’ cock, the internal working parts retaining their brightly burnished finish, figured full stock serial numbered in ink on the inside and with a sight line groove on the spur, chequered rounded butt, oval pommel with border engraved steel plate, blued steel mounts comprising border engraved trigger guard with spur, the bow engraved with the maker’s address in an oval on a martial trophy, case hardened trigger plate with pineapple finial, adjustable set trigger, turned ramrod pipes, original horn tipped ramrod, and most of the original finish: in original lined and fitted mahogany case with full accessories including brass mounted three way flask, the interior of the lid with maker’s illustrated trade label for circa 1806-1813, the exterior with circular flush fitting brass carrying handle centred on a circular vacant brass escutcheon, and with an old paper label pasted on printed ‘H. Everard, 29th Regt.’, London proof marks and Mortimer’s barrel maker’s mark.

Provenance
Christie’s London, Antique Arms and Armour, 11 May 1983, lot 146
Bonhams Antique Arms and Armour…, 22 April 2009, lot 344 (£33,150 incl premium)

Literature
H. Lee Munson, The Mortimer Gunmakers 1753-1923, 1992, p. 288. For an example of the trade label see p. 276 and for an account of ‘secret’ rifling see p. 186, pl. 287