A Pair of Presentation Quality Silver-mounted

Flintlock Holster Pistols by Wilson

London Silver Hallmarks for 1782

London. Steel, silver, gold, walnut wood. 42 cm / 16.5 in each

Provenance

Removed from Warwick Castle, Warwickshire (inv. nos. F007/8).

The Warwick Earldom became extinct upon the death of the 8th earl in 1759. The title was then recreated in the same year, in favour of Francis Greville, 1st Earl Brooke of Warwick Castle. These pistols may have come to Warwick Castle as a gift to the 2nd Earl, George Greville, 2nd Earl Brooke (1746-1816).

This pair of pistols display the degree of Georgian opulence reserved for firearms intended as prestigious gifts. It is likely due to them having been received in this manner and then displayed rather than used, that they are preserved in exceptional condition.

23

A Russian Silver-Mounted Sabre

Granted by the Empress Catherine II, ‘The Great’, to the Don Cossack Ivan, son of Vassily Lukianov dated 1774

Russia, probably Moscow. Steel, gold, silver, hardstone, wood .and leather. 90 cm / 25.5 in The Cyrillic inscription reads in translation: ‘By the Grace of God, I, Catherine II, Empress and Autocrat of all the Russias, grant this Sabre to the Cossack Ivan, Son of Vassily Lukianov of the army of the Village of Don Cherkz, for his Faithful Service. Presented to the Otaman Timofeyevich Grikov in Moscow, 15th May 1774’.

PROVENANCE

Lord Alistair McAlpine

The Warren Anderson Collection

In August 1745 the Grand Duke Pyotr Fyodorovich, nephew of the Empress Elizabeth and heir to the Russian throne, married Sophia Augusta Frederika of Anhalt-Zerbst, later to become the Empress Catherine II. At the base of the blade of the present sword, is a portrait of the Empress, encrusted in gold upon a gold acanthus spray. In the corresponding position on the reverse side, the Russian Imperial double eagle is similarly encrusted in gold. A closely comparable inscription in Arabic script is on the blade of a sabre in the State Hermitage Museum (Inv. No. B.O.163), transferred from the Imperial Arsenal at Tsarskoye Selo in 1885/6.