Dating to circa 1675, with three stage barrel with two turned girdles, each girdle engraved with a spray of foliage, fluted octagonal to polygonal breech section signed "DOMENICO BONOMINO" on the top flat, and barrel tang engraved en suite. Rounded lock and steel mounts including belt-hook finely chiseled in low relief with scrolling flowering tendrils inhabited by semi-nude figures, grotesque masks and numerous monkeys. Finely figured molded walnut full stock with characteristic two-piece fore-end. Trigger pierced with a seated monkey, and wood ramrod with steel tip chiseled and pierced with a further monkey.

Metal with aged patina overall, barrel with light aged cleaning leaving slight discoloration but engraved ornament and signature clear to barrel and slight wear to high points of chiseled decoration. Stock fore-end cracked and with hairline crack at front barrel mounting pin, another hairline crack at lock-plate, insignificant chip along fore-end on left side, a repaired section at tip of fore-end and another at the tail of the lock.

As described in "A". Domenico Bonomino is recorded by Stockel as active in Brescia between 1635 and 1700. A similar pair of embellished Brescian pistols with barrels signed Lazarino Cominazzo are retained in The Wallace Collection, London (Nos. A1223 & A1224). These pistols are also discussed or pictured in Peter Hawkins, The Price Guide to Antique Guns and Pistols, London, 1973 and Nolfo di Carpegna, Brescian Firearms from Matchlock to Flintlock, Rome, 1997.

Metal with aged patina overall, barrel with light aged cleaning leaving slight discoloration but engraved ornament and signature clear to barrel and slight wear to high points of chiseled decoration. Stock fore-end cracked and with hairline crack at front barrel mounting pin and beneath the lock plate, some insert repairs around central fore-end chiseled plate indicating that the fore-end was broken through at this point, old repaired crack and small insert repair to butt. One trigger guard tang screw replaced. Provenance: J.M.E. Askew Collection, Christie’s, London, 7 July 1964, lot 230; Robert M. Lee Collection, acquired from the Enrico Minovino Collection in 1993.