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19

AN EXCEPTIONAL SPANISH PRIVATE-PURCHASE OFFICER’S MIQUELET PISTOL

Currency:USD Category:Firearms & Military Start Price:1,250.00 USD Estimated At:NA
AN EXCEPTIONAL SPANISH PRIVATE-PURCHASE OFFICER’S MIQUELET PISTOL
If you have not contacted Lewis & Grant Auctions to arrange payment within 3 days of the time that invoice is sent, we will charge the credit card you used to register for the auction for the amount of your invoice.
.695 bore diameter, 7& #34; octagonal to round barrel. Signed with gold punchmarks on barrel, lock, and trigger guard by José Aguirre of Eibar. The two-stage octagonal/round barrel with chiseled and gold-accented mouldings with floral designs at the transition
point, with silver inlay at muzzle and breech. Inlaid with silver, in large letters, is “DE (H)ERRADURAS”(of horseshoes, see explanation below) on top flat.  The lock of very high quality, finely engraved, in original bright-polished finish. The touchhole of the
barrel is lined in gold. Iron full-length ramrod set far back in the stock, in the French style. Walnut stock with bird-head grip, and simple but elegant iron furniture en suite with the lock, also in the French style. In very fine condition, almost no wear, original finish, lock in perfect working order. Minor 1/4” long crack in wood ahead of lockplate at the bend of the mainspring per above photo. Historical note: The art of making barrels of high strength from ductile iron used in the western Pyrenees for horseshoes was developed by the Hispano-German smith Nicolás Bis in the early 18 th cent. and these barrels acquired a reputation throughout Europe for not bursting even when accidentally double-charged. This pistol is a custom-made version of a standard regulation-pattern used in France, Spain, and some other European countries. The signature, and the style of lock, confirms Spanish origin in this case. This gun would have been the type carried by Spanish officers during the Peninsular War against Napoleon’s occupation forces, and also in Latin America in the turbulent years during which the New World colonies broke away from the Empire Eibar supplanted Ripoll as Spain’s center of gun manufacture after the town of Ripoll and its industry were destroyed by repeated French incursions, and it remains today the area in which the manufacture of quality sporting arms (especially double-barreled shotguns) is located.

$2,500 - $5,000
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