Very fine pair of wheellock pistols stocked in richly figured burr wood.  Barrels, 24 bore, octagonal at the breeches, becoming sixteen- sided then round to the muzzles.  Signed Hanns Keiner on the top flat.  Engraved tangs, retained by a screw from beneath. Enclosed rounded locks, decorated on the interior, chiseled with acanthus at the tails, finely engraved with a human head and a serpent, both with leafy tendrils issuing from their mouths.  Pierced and engraved flush fitting cocks, long eared butts engraved along the tangs, with pierced silver caps, raised border chiseled trigger guards, baluster turned ram-rod pipes and retaining original iron tipped rods. During the second half of the seventeenth century the main center of fire-arms production in the Sudetenland was the city of Eger.  The leading maker was Hanns Keiner, who belonged to the third generation of a gunmaking family resident in the city.   These pistols are especially well preserved.

O.A. – 52.4 cm,  20 5/8”

Bls. – 33.3 cm,   13 1/8”

Provenance:  An American private collection

Price – SOLD