A Magnificent Pair of 18th Century London, Silver Mounted Long Holster Pistols Circa 1720, By George Halfhide of The Minories London. Elected Master of the London Gunmakers Company in 1736

A wondrous pair of finest English silver mounted, long barrelled, holster or horse pistols, by one of the great London makers of early Georgian England.

George Halfhide was a master gunsmith. and accordingly held in most high esteem, to such an extent, he was elected master of the gunmakers company in 1737. A highly prestigious position, carrying much responsibility and enormous respect within the trade.

He is renowned for making the finest pistols for the nobility and gentry of society in the earliest Georgian period of the 1700s. His silver mounts were finest quality for the time, and his carving and wood crafting always exemplary. The pistols are mounted with silver grotesque butt caps of extraordinary beauty.

These are an exceptional pair of such silver mounted pistols and are in fine condition for their age.

Long barrel holster pistols were in much great demand and in their day were extraordinary expensive. They could be carried in saddle mounted buckets (the earliest name for holsters) when mounted on horseback.

Made before the days of duelling pistols, but is from their size and design that pairs of cased duelling pistols evolved into later society in Georgian England.

Grotesque mask butt caps on antique flintlock and wheellock pistols primarily feature human-like caricatures, mythological beasts, and stylized theatrical faces. These ornamental metal caps—commonly made of silver, brass, or German silver—were most popular on 17th- and 18th-century European and American firearms, especially Queen Anne and pocket pistols.
Exaggerated human features with wide-open mouths, prominent noses, and furrowed brows, often modeled after architectural gargoyles.
Designs inspired by Greco-Roman theatre masks, woodland spirits, or symbolic "death demons" meant to ward off evil

A pistol grotesque butt mask was one of the very few of its kind recovered from colonial excavation sites throughout Maryland, USA, is important not only for what it is, but for what it represents. While no other gun parts were recovered from Site 18CH354, the grotesque butt cap represents ideologies and traditions transferred from the old world to the new, and characterized how these ideas spread up through the Revolution (Gusler & Levin 1977).

See the most interesting and illuminating article of the pistol grotesque butt cap mask of the early 18th century

https://apps.jefpat.maryland.gov/curatorschoice/CCIssues/2010-11.aspx

One hammer is slightly out of true with a hairline

Code: 26302