Long German Wheellock Officer’s Pistols, ca. 1640-50

Description

Intended for use as a pair but with minor differences. Tapering octagonal to round 18″
barrels of approx. 52 cal. bore, one with integral rear notch sight and brass front bead
sight. The breeches each struck with three marks, one involving the initials KS (Neue
Støckel 8337). Rounded lockplates with external wheels secured by three screws on
white bone washers, each struck on the inside with the mark ”IM”; fitted with sliding pan-
covers with button release; the wheels retained by a small crescent-shaped bracket (pan
release buttons not a pair). Ebonized wooden full stocks (small parts of the stocks re-
blackened), decorated around the barrel tangs and opposite the locks with carved designs
of scrolling foliage in low relief on a contrasting stippled ground and picked out with minute
brass nails. Expanded flattened pommels, each fitted with domed wooden cap decorated
en suite with the stocks and bound by an iron band. Iron trigger-guards, ramrod pipes,
and fore-end caps, and one pistol retaining its original iron-tipped ramrod (the other
expertly restored). The iron parts lightly cleaned. Overall length 25 7/8″ and 25¾ “. The
carved treatment of the stocks picked out with brass nails is characteristic of the
workshops of the Gsell family of gunmakers of Arzberg, Bavaria. Comparable examples
include the stock of a wheellock rifle signed by Georg Gsell and dated 1649, in the former
Imperial Collection, Vienna (D291), and a pair of flintlock Wender pistols in the Armory of
the Princes von und zu Liechtenstein, Schloss Vaduz.

Provenance:
The Armory of the Princely House of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, (inv. nos. 259, 260),
removed from Schloss Langenburg. Each gun with attached brass museum inventory tag
marked “HL” (for Hohenlohe Langenburg) with number “259″ and “260″ respectively.