This attractive pair of pistols is illustrated and described The Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Early Firearms of Great Britain and Ireland from the Collection of Clay P. Bedford" and were displayed at the MET in 1971 on pages 36 and 39. They note "Michael Ransford worked in Dublin from about 1735 until his death in 1757...Literature: Blackmore, Royal Sporting Guns at Windsor, p. 55 pl. 11; Christie's sale, June 10, 1969, lot 191." The pistols have silver mounts, and all but the upper ramrod pipes and wrist escutcheons have Irish hallmarks. The furniture includes border, shell, classical martial, and floral patterns, and the pommel cap studs are grotesque green-man masks. The locks are signed "RANSFORD." The two-stage, smoothbore barrels have traces of proofs on the upper left at the breech and dished rear sights on the tangs. The stocks have raised relief floral carving between the barrel tangs and wrist escutcheons and nicely shaped flats. The wrist escutcheons feature a crest with an armored hand holding a dagger and a ducal coronet.

See "A". Provenance: The Clay P. Bedford Collection; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1971; Property of a Gentleman