AN EXCEPTIONAL PAIR OF BOHEMIAN SILVER-MOUNTED FLINTLOCK HOLSTER PISTOLS BY PAUL POSER IN PRAG, CIRCA 1725
with long barrels each signed in full on the sighting rib, lightly swamped towards the muzzle, decorated over its length with finely chiselled and engraved small designs of scrollwork involving an urn of acanthus leaves in relief behind the rib, the breeches each formed as a raised chiselled cartouche supported by a pair of opposing grotesque profile masks and framing two gold-lined maker's stamps in the Madrid style (Neue Støckel 8080, 8081), gold-lined vent, silver fore-sight and the barrel tangs engraved respectively with opposing Harpies, flat locks decorated en suite with the barrels, with bevelled stepped edges, signed between the arms of the steel-springs, finely chiselled in low relief, the greater part of the chiselled decoration arranged within pounced matted recessed panels, each involving a trophy-of-war involving a Turkish captive, the figure of Victory at the rear, the cock with a cherub seated within a flourish of scrollwork issuant from a monster's mouth and the pan with a demon mask cut in relief, figured walnut full stocks finely carved with delicate relief mouldings, including scrollwork patterns about the barrel tangs and ramrod-pipes, the latter each centring on a demon mask, inlaid over their respective lengths with scrolling designs of silver wire tendrils carrying engraved small flowerheads, the butts each inlaid with an expanded pattern suspending both a demon mask plaque and small warrior bust medallion (one warrior medallion missing), full silver mounts cast and chased in low relief, en suite with the barrels and locks, comprising spurred pommels decorated with elaborate rollwerk cartouches filled with pairs of warriors all'antica , probably Heroes from Bohemian history, the figures differing between the two pistols, one pair bearing shields charged, respectively, with the Lion of Bohemia and the Eagle of Moravia, the other pair including one figure displaying a severed Turkish trophy head, with bevelled stepped solid side-plates decorated with a landscape vignette involving the mounted figures of a Turk and a soldier of the Empire in combat before a town and an encampment, trigger-guards each centring on the figure of Diana, the finial involving a grotesque mask, faceted baluster ramrod-pipes, the rearward pipe decorated with a demon mask, oval escutcheons involving demon masks and elaborate pierced frameworks surmounted by a ducal crown, putti supporters and figural trophies-of-war, and fitted with moulded horn fore-end caps (ramrods missing)
54 cm; 21¼ in
(2)

Paul Ignazius Poser (1) (born 1646) is ranked among the leading gunmakers in Prague in the early 18th century and his works are represented in the most important ancestral gunrooms in Southern Germany and Central Europe. These include a pair of fowling-pieces and a breech-loading rifled carbine in the collections of the Princes von und zu Liechtenstein in Schloss Vaduz, the latter made for a member of the Royal House of Savoy (inv. nos. 3871, 3885, 4102). A pair of holster pistols by Paul Poser are in the former Imperial Collection in Vienna (WS.A1691), see Schedelmann 1972, pp. 226-7.

Another pair, closely comparable with the present pistols, were made by Poser for Philipp, Prince von Lobkowicz, circa 1731: sold Christie's, 9th December 1988, lot 215. Poser's death date is recorded as 1730 in Der Neue Støckel but the pistols made for Prince Lobkowicz could not pre-date 1731.

The distinguished treatment of the barrels, the locks and the mounts is possibly the work of the Franz Matzenkopf (circa 1705-1776), a celebrated chiseller of iron, silver and bronze who supplied Poser and other Prague gunmakers. Matzenkopf was producing coin dies for the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg by 1727; he left Prague to take up his appointment as coin and medal die-cutter to the Salzburg court in 1738. See Hayward 1963, pp.125-7