Wheellock Pistol ca. 1580–1600 French With their elegant form, innovative use of materials, and imaginative ornament, French firearms were trend-setters throughout Europe from the early seventeenth to mid-nineteenth century. French influence in firearms design was spread in several ways: by the lavish gifting of firearms as part of French diplomatic practice; the publication in Paris of numerous engraved pattern books of firearms ornament; and the wide dispersal of Huguenot (Protestant) gunmakers after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1683. The rise of French gunmaking to its pre-emine
Wheellock Pistol ca. 1580–1600 French With their elegant form, innovative use of materials, and imaginative ornament, French firearms were trend-setters throughout Europe from the early seventeenth to mid-nineteenth century. French influence in firearms design was spread in several ways: by the lavish gifting of firearms as part of French diplomatic practice; the publication in Paris of numerous engraved pattern books of firearms ornament; and the wide dispersal of Huguenot (Protestant) gunmakers after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1683. The rise of French gunmaking to its pre-eminent position did not happen overnight, however, but had its origins in the sixteenth century. This whellock pistol, a rare example of high quality French gunmaking before 1600, epitomizes this early, innovative pistol’s long, slender lines, small-caliber barrel, and distinctive wheellock mechanism are characteristic French features. So too is the elegant and sophisticated decoration. The barrel is chiseled in low relief at the breech end with strapwork, foliage, and a terme, the ornament gilt overall. Forward of this section, the smooth surface is engraved with emblems that include the fleur-de-lis, a flaming heart, an arrow entwined by a serpent that were gilt on a heat-blued ground, the colors now faded. The lockplate is worked in relief at its rear point with the head of a fierce dog with bared teeth, the head of the cock is fashioned as a horse’s head, and the wheel is fitted with a guide in the form of a siren. The wood stock is densely inlaid with shaped and engraved pieces of white staghorn, some stained green, and mother-of-pearl formed as dragons, putti, and grotesques, a type of embellishment that reflects—more in the choice of materials than style—the influence of contemporary German firearms. The pistol’s metal buttcap of ‘fishtail’ shape that is quite different from the spherical or ovoid butt common to most European pistols of the period.
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