Two-stage barrels of approximately .54 caliber with tapered octagonal breach sections transitioning to round mid-point at molded bands. The breeches are marked with the initials "H S". The flat lock plates are unadorned and are mounted with convex wheel covers. The pistols have fruitwood full stocks inset with six shell and rosette engraved bone roundels, two engraved bone ramrod pipes, bone fore-end tips engraved en suite, and engraved bone inlays surrounding breech tang. The left side of each stock is set with large bone plaques shaped and engraved in the form of mythical sea serpents. They have seven sided and fluted, bone inlaid, pear-shaped butts. Christian II became Elector of Saxony at age 8 and honorary Prince of the Holy Roman Empire in 1591. Ruling 1601 through 1611, he is known to have added to the arms collection of the Electoral Guard which contained two hundred troops divided into three companies. This pair was part of the Collection of Saxon Electoral Armories, Dresden, and Collection of Stephen V. Grancsay, Curator of Arms and Armor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. They were exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1933; see exhibition catalogue No. 200. Also exhibited at the Allentown Museum in 1964; see exhibition catalogue, No. 154.

Both pistols were part of the Saxon Electoral Armories and are preserved in exceptional condition throughout. The metal surfaces retain considerable traces of their original blued finish turning to grey. There is some very minor damage to the stag horn inlays. The elegant, long fruitwood stocks are fine throughout and retain a lovely four century old patina. All Stockman wheel-lock pistols are scarce, and unlike the black stocked wheel-lock puffers also from the Saxon Royal Armories which appear frequently at auctions in Europe and America, examples by Stockman are very rarely offered for sale. These have not only an extremely good provenance but are far longer and have finer form than most others. This is only the third pair of Stockman wheel-lock pistols to be sold in America since 1968 and represent an opportunity no collector of wheel-locks can afford to miss.

As discussed in A.

See A.