The Earl's holster pistols
Neil Melville investigates the puzzle behind a fine pair of flintlock pistols
Neil Melville investigates the puzzle behind a pair of flintlock pistols that are fine examples and absolutely typical of top quality English holster pistols of the early 18th century.
The Maitland clan is an ancient family who supposedly came over from Normandy with the Conqueror and moved north. The name Maitland is derived from Mautalent, which still survives in Normandy. A Robert Mautalent was recorded as a witness to various charters in Yorkshire between 1138 and 1145. By 1157 he was recorded as a vassal of the Vescy family in Alnwick, in Northumberland. In due course descendents moved further north into Scottish Border country. In 1258 a Richard Mautalent was recorded at Thirlestane in Lauderdale and that is where they stayed. Thirlestane Castle, just south of the town of Lauder, on the A68 trunk road, is the ancestral seat of the Maitlands who later were elevated as Earls of Lauderdale.
Charles Maitland, 1688-1744, Sixth
Earl of Lauderdale, was descended from John, the First Earl, who was the great-grandson of Lady Janet Stewart an illegitimate daughter of James IV, King of Scots. At the battle of Sheriffmuir, in 1715, the Earl fought as a volunteer on the Government (or Hanoverian) side under the Duke of Argyll. The battle was a chaotic mess; the right wing of each army routed its opponent but
Argyll claimed a victory since he had prevented the Jacobites from marching south into England. The Stuart pretender, James VIII, arrived after the battle and returned to France 10 weeks later. The Earl was appointed General of the Mint, Sheriff of Midlothian and later LordLieutenant of Midlothian. Future Earls of Lauderdale maintained their anti-Jacobite sympathies and as supporters of the
Hanoverian dynasty became Hereditary Saltire Banner-bearers of Scotland.
The connection with the featured pair of pistols is revealed by the silver escutcheon on the butt of each one, engraved with the crest and motto of the Earls of Lauderdale – a lion sitting, crowned with a coronet and holding a sword and a fleur-de-lys, surmounted with the words ‘CONSILIO ET ANIMIS’ (By Wisdom and Courage). The silver trigger guard is hallmarked with the date letter for 1721 so the owner has to be the sixth Earl but the pistols had to have been bought well after the Battle of Sheriffmuir.
These pistols are fine examples and absolutely typical of top quality English holster pistols of the early 18th century. The cast silver mounts are delicately engraved with foliate designs; the openwork side plate is of a standard pattern, a flowing foliate design of the style which was replacing the image of sea creatures or monsters from around 1715. Equally standard is the escutcheon or thumbplate engraved with the Lauderdale crest. Exceptionally notable are the two grotesque mask butt caps, moulded as wild-man faces. The lockplates and cocks are smoothly rounded as would be expected at this date. The 10in twostage barrels are slightly swamped at the muzzle, engraved with foliate flourishes and ‘LONDON’ at the breech, and stamped with the London gunmakers’ view and proof marks.
Now to the puzzle. The lockplate is signed on a scroll with the maker’s name, ‘HARVEY’, but the barrel is clearly marked with the maker’s stamp ‘PG’ for Pierre Gandon, a Huguenot refugee to London who had become naturalised in 1710 and admitted to the freedom of the Gunmakers’ Company in 1720. This apparent discrepancy isn’t a problem since it was a not uncommon practice for gunmakers to fit barrels by other makers to their pistols, either because their patron so wished or just for convenience. Italian and Spanish barrels were considered particularly desirable. Both Robert Harvey and Pierre Gandon were noted for the quality of their guns, and this pair of pistols certainly lives up to their reputation. The puzzle lies in the apparent fact that Robert Harvey signed his pistols in this manner nowhere else – of the dozen and more examples of his signature that I have found all but one are engraved in a straight line on a plain ground (ie not on a scroll) ‘ROBT HARUEY’ (sic). The one exception, on a very different pistol, is ‘ROBERT HARVEY A LONDON’.
There are several possible solutions to this oddity. Robert, Master of the Gunmakers’ Company in 1725, was the most notable of three Harveys who were working in London at this time. Robert himself is recorded as submitting arms for proof between 1702 and 1731; Richard Harvey who I assume was his younger brother since they were both apprenticed to the same two masters only two years apart; and Thomas Harvey who was apprenticed to Robert in 1715, and whom I take to have been Robert’s son or nephew.
I have found not a single pistol or other firearm made by Richard Harvey and he disappears from the records of the Gunmakers’ Company after 1709. Whatever the reason, it seems unlikely that he is the gunmaker. In 1721, the date of the pistols, Thomas would still have been a journeyman gunmaker, presumably for Robert and so unable to sign off work in his own right. This might explain the unusual ‘HARVEY’ signature with no specific initial. I have found one pair of holster pistols signed ‘T HARVEY’ on a scroll, which are of the same style and size but later in date, indicated by flat lockplates and use of bridles on the flashpans.
Another, but far-fetched, solution would have Pierre Gandon building the pistols using his own barrels and forging the Harvey signature to fool a Scottish patron who favoured a more prestigious maker. Against this most unlikely theory are numerous pistols signed by Gandon in his own name including a garniture of five guns sold to the Scottish Duke of Atholl. The only evidence in support is a pair of pistols signed by Gandon on a scroll and using the same unusual pattern of ramrod pipes as the Harvey pair. On balance I prefer the young Thomas Harvey version.
Pistols of this quality and period appear fairly often at the top auction houses and dealers, fetching £5,000-£10,000, depending on rarity and condition. ■