A Fine and Very Rare 50 Bore Four Barrel 'Duck's Foot' Volley Pistol
With 3 inch turn-off barrels cut at the muzzles for a key and numbered 1-4, the breeches numbered correspondingly, , box-lock action signed on scrolls carried by trophies-of-arms and foliage on the left, and inscribed ‘Gunmaker to his Majesty’ in an oval on the right, engraved tang, fitted with sliding thumb-piece safety-catch also locking the steel, flat-sided walnut butt, iron trigger-guard engraved with a trophy and foliage on the bow. London proof marks
Provenance: William Keith Neal, Clay P. Bedford, H. Lee Munson
Literature: “Early Firearms of Great Britain and Ireland” from the collection of Clay P. Bedford” exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1971, cat no. 205 pp 179-180
Lee Munson, “The Mortimer Gunmakers 1753-1923 pp 253-4
Note: Genuine examples of duck’s foot pistols are extremely rare. To quote from Munson’s excellent book: “To the best of my knowledge this is the only surviving example of a Mortimer duck’s foot pistol. Complementing the rarity of the type and the rarity as a Mortimer arm is the pistol’s present excellent condition”.