.61 caliber. 9.75" pinned octagon to round barrels with rudimentary cannon muzzles defined by incised lines. NSN. Browned finish, silver mountings, relief carved European hardwood stock. Single shot muzzleloading smoothbore flintlock pistols made without sights, with metal tipped wooden ramrods, each secured by a single thimble and an entry pipe. 4.4" flat locks terminate in pronounced points at the tail and with faceted, fenced and unbridled detachable iron pans and flat faceted swan neck cocks.Lock plates are engraved in script "Fervrier/A Fontenau" and lightly engraved with flowing foliate motifs with the cocks engraved ensuite. Locks remain in original flint and are unaltered. Frizzens with faceted faces, engraved ensuite at the center tops and with curled toes. Barrels are lightly engraved on the nocksforms with foliate themes with the breech plug tangs engraved ensuite. The pistols are mounted with what appears to be silver furniture, although only a couple of the parts retain visible touch marks, suggesting that polishing over the years may have removed other markings. One retains some clear markings on the base of the triggerguard tang, including a "BR" cartouche over a Fleur-de-Lis and a small star over a profile bust. These same marks appear on the obverse langet of the pistol with the star over bust mark appearing on the side plate, although they are weaker than on the triggerguard. The second pistol retains only traces of the marks on the langet, due to polishing. The pistols feature chased two-piece silver buttcaps with classical motifs with long, pointed langets, and chased triggerguards with flowing urn finials. The solid, one-piece side plates are decorated with flowing foliate and shell motifs. Oval wrist escutcheons are present but are not decorated or marked. The pistols feature raised carved stocks with flowing foliate motif aprons around the tangs and entry pipes, raised borders around the triggerguards and incised lines along the edges of the forends.

According to Heer her Neue Stockel, Fevrier worked during the first quarter of the 18th century in the Lyon region of France. These are a lovely pair of holster sized pistols that would have been typical of those carried by a French officer or gentleman and would be appropriate to any collection of arms from the period of the French & Indian War or the American Revolution. {ANTQUE}

[French & Indian War] [American Revolution] [Flintlock Pistol]

Very Good to Near Fine. Both bores are dark, moderately oxidized and show some evenly scattered pitting. Barrels both retain traces of old brown mixed with a moderately oxidized brown patina. Engraving on the barrels remains visible, if not crisp, as do the lock markings and engraving. The silver furniture shows signs of old polishing and cleaning, but is toning down to a medium pewter color with some loss in the definition of the decorations and only a few of the touch marks remain visible. Both pistols are mechanically functional and remain in original flint. Both stocks remain fairly crisp, with one gun showing some chipped loss around the rear of the lock plate and a crack below the lock plate, running to the trigger plate. The other shows a small crack above the side plate, near the rear lock screw. Otherwise the stocks show only the typical dings, dents and mars expected on a pair of pistols that are some 300 years old, with some minor wood loss around the pins in the forends. Both ramrods appear original, with one retaining the iron cleaning jag at the end other broken at the end and missing the jag. Overall a really lovely pair of early French pistols.