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The octagon to round barrel is nicely patterned Damascus and has a silver blade front sight, double wedding band transition, dished rear sight, and floral engraved tang. The two silver barrel bands have sculpted masks of the same face with varying expressions on the bottoms, pierced acanthus patterns on the sides, and rope patterns across the tops. The rear is followed by a silver sling swivel. The front band’s mask has its eyes and mouth down turned as if flinching, and the rear has the eyes open and teeth clenched and bared suggesting anger. They may represent a man tense in preparation of firing his gun and flinching at its ignition or may represent Pluto given the other decoration. The silver trigger guard has floral patterns, a scene based on the sculpture “The Rape of Proserpina” by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (c. 1621-1622) showing Proserpina being abducted and taken to the Underworld by the Pluto in an oval panel on the bow, and a green-man mask at the rear of the grip extension. The lock is very ornate and has a graceful curving shape with beveled edges. The lyre shaped frizzen has
a chiseled siren, possibly Parthenope. The battery face is serrated. The city of Naples was previously the colony Parthenope, named after her, after she and the other sirens were defeated by Orpheus. He defeated them by playing and singing better than the sirens and thus saved Jason’s crew. Parthenope flung herself into the sea, and her body was said to have washed ashore and to have been buried in a tomb at the future site of Naples. The pan has acanthus fences, and the frizzen spring also has foliate and scroll accents and a roller. The mainspring has light engraving at the tips. The cock has a pierced, acanthus and floral bridle, an impressive spread wing eagle backed by foliate designs for a neck, and sculpted floral blues, a fluer-de-lis, and leaf patterns on the jaw. The lock plate itself has floral patterns engraved under the pan and a swan and foliage at the rear. The silver heel plate has foliate finial, an oval panel scene with Procris, a leashed dog, and a small winged figure on a podium with a torch
in one hand and another small object in the other, “Procri” inscribed below the scene, floral border engraving on the back of the plate, a bloom engraved around the screw, and a floral finial. The tales of Procris and Cephalus, her husband, vary significantly, but they generally involve each of them being jealous and concerned about the fidelity of the other.
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