Product Details
JAN BIJLAARD, ROTTERDAM
A PAIR OF 16-BORE FLINTLOCK HOLSTER-PISTOLS, no visible serial numbers,
circa 1695, with strongly swamped 11 1/2in. barrels, each carved with a raised flat, shallow fore-sight blades, the breech-end with three carved overlapping lobes, the last grooved for sighting, grooved top-tangs with foliate engraved tips, slightly curved and radiused lockplates signed 'I. BEYLAERT (sic) ROTTERDAM' and engraved with a band of bead-work below the pans, figured walnut full-stocks lightly moulded and carved with serpentine grooves along the fore-end and a raised panel around the top-tangs, brass grotesque mask stepped-eared butt-caps, pierced relief cast and chased escutcheons at the wrists engraved with a British crest of a bras arme grasping a broken lance surmounted with a viscounts coronet, pierced sideplates featuring a monster's head and a grotesque mask, fluted trigger-guard bows and foliate finials, baluster ramrod pipes and brass tipped wood ramrods (one an early working replacement), some mild scattered pitting, mainly to barrel
Provenance: Ex Lot 345 Bonhams Fine Antique Arms and Armour from the Henk L. Visser Collection, Wednesday 28th November 2007
Literature: G. de Vries and B.J. Martens The Visser Collection vol. 1, part 4, cat. no. 868 pp. 432-433
Other Notes: Jan Bijlaard was a prominent gunmaker, merchant and sword-smith operating in Rotterdam between 1690 and 1708. Often working alongside his younger brother, Jacobus, also a gunmaker, he received some large contracts.
Please click HERE to view Terms & Conditions.
Estimate £4,500-5,500