Product Details
JAN VAN WIJK, UTRECHT
A FINE PAIR OF 22-BORE FLINTLOCK HOLSTER-PISTOLS, no visible serial number,
circa 1705, with blued, swamped 13in. two-stage barrels signed 'LEAN DE WYK A UTRECHT' to the top-flats along with the Utrecht stamped mark, applied long gilded fore-sight blades, the muzzle-flats inscribed 'HEUREUX QUI M'ECHAPE' ((sic): happy is he who escapes), gilded flange to breech grooved for sighting, blued border engraved tangs, gilded touch-holes, flat border engraved bevel-edged locks with stepped tails signed 'LEAN DE WYK A UTRECHT' beneath the pans, scroll engraved panels to the hammers, faceted jaws, pans and frizzens, walnut full stocks (some cracks and repairs), lightly carved and moulded the fore-stocks carved with serpentine grooves to each side, three screw border engraved ribbon side-plates, faceted long-eared iron butt-caps, faceted iron trigger-guards and ramrod thimbles, chiselled vacant escutcheons surmounted by a coronet to the wrists and iron tipped wood ramrods, some scattered mild pitting, barrels and tang an old re-blue
Provenance: Ex Lot 352 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. 878 pp. 452-453
Other Notes: One of Utrecht's best gunmakers, Jan van Wijk (often Wijck or Wyck) full name appears to have been Johan Jaspersz van Wijk. After 1716, the records sometimes refer to him as 'den Ouden' (the Elder), in reference to his son who shared the same name. No identified guns from the son survive, but the Utrecht archives record the father as a gunsmith and stock-maker who gained an associate membership to the Smiths Guild in 1682. Wijk the Elder is believed to have been born circa 1660 and died circa 1729
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Estimate £10,000-15,000