A Pair of Queen Anne Pistols by Delaney.
A Pair Of 42-Bore Flintlock Turn-Off Pocket Pistols by H. Delany, London, Circa 1730. With two-stage cannon barrels, the breeches engraved three circles in front of a band of foliage, foliate engraved tangs, border engraved actions, plain cocks, each signed beneath the steel-spring, fitted with safety catches behind the cocks, engraved iron trigger-guards, moulded rounded figured butts carved in relief with a shell behind each barrel tang and finely inlaid with interlaced scrollwork in silver wire heightened with silver pins, cast and chased silver mounts comprising pierced foliate side-plates, escutcheons engraved with the original owners crest, each with grotesque mask above, and lightly engraved butt-caps each involving a foliated grotesque mask (scattered wear and surface pitting), London proof marks and maker’s marks.
Henry Delany (or Delaney), a Huguenot, was admitted to the freedom of the London Gunmakers’ Company in 1715. He is recorded as a maker of breech-loading sporting guns and silver-mounted pistols, and was also the maker of a large crossbow with built-in cranequin in the collection of the Marquis of Bath at Longleat. See J.F. Hayward, ‘The Huguenot Gunmakers Of London’, J.A.A.S., vol. VI, no. 4 (December 1968), pp. 124-5
Dimensions:
Bore: 42 Bore
Barrel Length: 2 Inches (5 cm)
Overall Length: 6.5 Inches (16.5 cm)
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