FALL 2022 PREMIER FIREARMS & MILITARIA AUCTION!

November 2022

FINE PAIR OF PRE REVOLUTIONARY WAR SILVER MOUNTED OFFICER’S OR DUELING PISTOLS BY W. HENSHAW.

Cal 62.
NSN.
Bbl. 8″

William Henshaw was working in London between 1762-1790. Silver mounts on these pistols have 1772 date stamp. Pistols have 8″ iron bbls. w/ oct. breech sections which transition through fancy wedding band to swamped & flared muzzles. Top flats engraved “W HENSHAW”. Top left flats stamped w/ London gun maker’s proofs & crowned “F” bbl. maker’s mark. Barrels do not have patent breeches & breech plug tangs engraved w/ well detailed scrolls of acanthus. Locks w/ chamfered plates have long rebated tails & fitted w/ serpentine cocks, integral pans, bridled frizzens & feather springs w/ bulbous finials having teats. Walnut stocks extend to muzzles & are pinned to bbls. There is raised shell carving w/ beads around bbl. tangs. Pistols are silver mounted w/ grotesque face butt caps, dbl. beaded trigger guards w/ shell finials, pierced sideplates w/ armorial decoration & lg. escutcheons at grips. Butt caps & trigger guard tangs are hallmarked for sterling, 1772, and “I. K.” (John King). Greenheart ramrods w/ horn tips (one w/ steel worm on tail) mount through silver beaded pipes & matching thimbles.

STATUS: ANTIQUE