A RARE OVER-AND-UNDER WHEEL-LOCK PISTOL, NUREMBERG, CIRCA 1585-90
with swamped barrels, the lower octagonal, the upper formed in two stages and struck with Nuremberg mark and both the serpent mark and initials of the barrelmaker Peter Danner (Neue Støckel 4251), large lock with plain flat plate struck with Nuremberg mark and maker's mark of Hans (2) Stopler (Neue Støckel 1056/8), carrying two mechanisms released by a single trigger, the wheel-covers en suite, fitted with sliding pan-covers each engraved with a demon mask and the dogs each engraved with two marine monsters, fruitwood full stock inlaid over its length with a series of engraved staghorn plaques in fields of ball-flower scrollwork segmented by inlaid horn lines and engraved bands, including a pair of human grotesques about the barrel tang, a bear-hunting scene over the reverse side, involving a mounted huntsman armed with a sword, the huntsman pursued in turn by a lion, inlaid ball pommel decorated with an alternating pattern of differing grotesque masks each within a rollwerk cartouche, and fitted with iron belt hook, baluster trigger and moulded iron trigger-guard (both safety-catches and one pan-cover release missing, the fore-end chipped ahead of the lock and towards the muzzles, the plaque over the ramrod channel missing, the fore-end cap, the pommel roundel , one inlaid mask and the ramrod additionally all missing)
48.9 cm; 19 ¼ in

Two wheel-lock pistols each bearing the marks of Peter Danner and those of the Stopler family of Nuremberg are preserved in the Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor: for a commentary on these and for a general survey of firearms attributed to these two makers see C. Blair 1974, cat.nos. 121 and 122. Blair tentatively attributes the Stopler spur mark to Wolf Stopler, citing Johan F. Støckel; the same version of this mark is attributed in Heer's Neue Støckel to Hans(2) Stopler.
The Nuremberg city archive for 1583 records a dispute between Peter Danner and the widow of his brother Hans over their joint use of the Danner serpent mark. The Nuremberg Council ruled, subject to conditions, that she and her brother-in-law should difference the mark by adding their respective initials. The addition of the maker's initials supposes the likelihood that their presence post-dates 1583, although this cannot be ascribed with certainty.