3476

ELEGANT PAIR OF FLINTLOCK PISTOLS CARRIED BY

Currency:USD Category:Firearms & Military Start Price:2,500.00 USD Estimated At:5,000.00 - 7,000.00 USD
ELEGANT PAIR OF FLINTLOCK PISTOLS CARRIED BY
ANCESTOR OF CIVIL WAR CAPTAIN AND FOUNDER OF MOLLUS, PETER DIRCK KEYSER. Cal. 55 (28 bore). NSN. Bbls. 12" rnd. w/ London proofs near breech. This pair have a refined simplistic elegance, chaste in design w/ no engraving, quite American in style of early 19th Century Kentucky pistols. Locks have flat supported cocks & unbridled frizzens, single brass ramrod pipe & brass trigger guard. Locks are marked “I. Rea” for John Rea dating circa 1800. Each pistol is branded twice “P. A. KEYSER” who was probably Peter Augustus Keyser (1805-1869) father of Capt. P.D. Keyser whose name appears on sm. brass plaques along w/ old exhibition numbers 162 & 167 painted on each. This pair have been well cared for showing little use & 2 generations having their names attached. Peter Dirck Keyser was Capt. in the 91st Pennsylvania & one of the 3 founding members of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion United States, his membership number is 3. UNATTACHED ACCESSORIES: large file of research into Keyser family. CONDITION: fine overall, both are original & complete, well fit, iron is gray & mostly smooth overall, brass has light mustard patina. Stocks are sound & solid, one gun has chip under forward section of lock & hairline crack between sideplate & bbl., plus a hairline following grain about midpoint on right side bbl. channel. Guns were cleaned & varnished back when fashionable, late 19th & early 20th century. Even the attached plaques & inventory numbers are varnished or shellacked over. Guns are mechanically crisp w/ smooth pitted bores. PROVENANCE: From the Collection of John "Tim" Breth Jr. (01-17762/JS). ANTIQUE. $5,000-7,000.