Product Details
FORMERLY OWNED BY THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK
GASTINNE RENETTE, PARIS
A CASED PAIR OF FINEST QUALITY PRESENTATION 50-BORE RIFLED TARGET-PISTOLS, no visible serial numbers,
circa 1855, with browned octagonal 10in. barrels, inlaid gold bands and arabesques at muzzle, further en-suite inlays at breech, the top flats signed in gold script 'GASTINNE RENETTE A PARIS', the signatures surrounded by co-joined inlaid borders with arabesque terminals, dove-tailed bead fore-sights, standing notch rear-sights to the chisel carved top-tangs, deeply chisel-carved floral panels at breech, double scroll and fenced nipple-snails, floral chisel-carved bolsters, deeply chisel-carved isolated unsigned bar-action hump-back locks with stepped tails, en-suite hammers, ebonised wood half-stocks with chequered flared butts, relief floral and ivy-leaf carving bracketing the chequering, iron florally carved butt-caps with blued spires, spurred trigger-guard bows with carved scrolled supports and featuring the Brunswick heraldic shield inlaid in gold surrounded by carved vines, finely engraved cups for the side-nails, border-engraved take-down wedge escutcheons, plain fore-ends with no provision for ramrods, the pair retaining virtually all their original finish TOGETHER WITH their ebony storage case with variegated brass banding to the lid and a central brass engraved representation of the Brunswick heraldic shield, the case lined and compartmented in green baize in the continental style and complete with a full suite of accessories including ebony and brass-mounted loading and cleaning rods, ebony handled turn-screw and nipple-key, scissors ball-mould and powder-measure chisel carved en-suite with the pistols, an ebony loading mallet and two bayonet-lidded ebony pots
Provenance: The date of these pistols would indicate that the duke referred to was William Augustus Maximilian Frederick, Duke of Brunswick. He was born 25th April 1806, the second son of Frederick William who died when William was aged nine, and was then under the guardianship of King George IV for a period. His older brother Charles was deposed as the ruling duke by a rebellion in 1830 and William took over provisional governance of Brunswick, before being formally sworn-in the following year. He joined the North German Confederation in 1866 but left Brunswick in a constitutional crisis on his death in 1884 because the heir apparent, Ernest Augustus, 3rd Duke of Cumberland, was not recognised by the N.G.C. due to his claim to the throne of Hanover. The crisis lasted until Cumberland's son and namesake acceded to the title in 1913.
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Estimate £18,000-24,000