Beschreibung:

.52 caliber, 8" barrels, no S/N. Browned barrels, bright locks with iron furniture, walnut stock. Obverse lock engraved Bichard in script, reverse lock engraved St. Etienne. Top rib marked CANON TORDU in gold. Semi-banana-shaped flat locks with fenced, faceted pans. Locks with simple panoplies of arms engraved at their tails and floral motifs on the flat, faceted swan neck cocks. Double triggers, fronts of frizzes engraved, with curled toes. Lightly engraved steel mounts with a panoply of arms on the butt cap and floral motifs on the triggerguard. Barrels decorated with simple gold gilt floral and cornucopia themes. Stock with floral raised carving around tang and at rear of entry pipe, and a German silver escutcheon plate at the wrist. False wood ramrod. Marcel Richard worked at St. Etienne ca 1770-1793, serving as controller in 1792. A really outstanding pistol from the period of Louis XVI's reign, likely produced in the decade immediately prior to the French Revolution. Condition: Very good. Barrels retain traces of finish with an attractive and lightly oxidized patina, retaining much of their gold gilt decoration. Mechanically functional, good bores with moderate oxidation. Stock very good with crisp raised carving, scattered bumps and dings, some minor repairs around the lock mortises and some likely repairs concealed by thickly added brown stain between the locks and the tang. A really lovely, late 18th century pistol.