Page 200 - 4093-BOOK3

LOT 3279
Historic Well-Documented Presentation Cased Pair of Silver Mounted
Prosser Flintlock Pistols Inscribed to Colonel Thomas Hislop -A) Prosser
Flintlock Pistol - NSN, 54 cal., 9 5/8 inch octagon bbl., brown/casehardened/
silver finish, walnut stock. This historically significant pair of early 19th century
flintlock pistols feature presentation inscriptions on the sideplates from the
governor and council of Essequibo and Demerara to military commandant
Colonel Thomas Hislop dated 1802. They were later owned by Arthur Richard
Dufty, the former Master of the Royal Armouries, and were exhibited at the
Walmer House Museum in Farnham in 1962 and in the “Art of the Armourer”
exhibit at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1963. They have been featured
in multiple publications, including Plate 69 of J.F. Hayward’s “The Art of the
Gunmaker Volume II” and the cover and page 87 of Howard L. Blackmore’s
“Firearms.” The pair is also discussed on page 85 of “The British Duelling Pistol”
by John A. Atkinson and in “Country Life” Volume 131 on page 758.
The pistols are suitable use as an officer’s sidearms and as dueling pistols and
feature browned, smoothbore, Damascus, swamped octagonal barrels with
fixed gilt blade front sights, “---CHARING CROSS LONDON---” in gold inlay on
the top flats, “97” marked on the bottom flats, casehardened patent breeches
with gold lined touch holes and gold bands. “97” is also marked on the inside
of the forends. The standing breeches feature notch rear sights and classical
martial engraving.
198