Auctions Imperial 2017 Arms & Armor November
Lot 282:
Description
Exceptional craftsmanship, likely Epirus work. Stocked entirely in silver, chiseled, embossed and engraved in intricate baroque motifs involving flowering vinework, the triggers in the form of horses, and gilded overall. Mounted with imported flintlock mechanisms and barrels, each lock with covered frizzen spring, the barrels elaborately engraved and inlaid with maker’s marks. In their leather holsters with broad belt, each covered in velvet and embroidered with flowers in silk, with silver stems and leaves, with integral covered cartridge boxes, and set with numerous silk tassels. Late18th-early 19th century. Minor wear. The Greek nationalist movement which arose in the latter 19th century was, necessarily, clandestine. Weapons were forbidden to Ottoman subject peoples—on pain of death—so that those marked with Christian symbols such as crosses, or bore Greek inscriptions, were virtually unknown. Instead, biblical references were often relied upon amongst conspirators: the fanciful horse-shaped triggers found on this pair of pistols refer to the Book of Revelation, Chapter 19, Verses 19:11-16 (THE REVELATION OF JOHN, translated from the Greek by David Robert Palmer, January 2017): http://bibletranslation.ws/trans/revwgrk.pdf Overall length 52.7 cm. Condition III
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