GUN SPRING 2018
The live portion of this session begins on Wednesday, March 21, 2018.
VERY RARE PAIR OF HIGH QUALITY BREECHLOADING HAMMER HOWDAH PISTOLS BY ALEXANDER HENRY.ALEXANDER HENRYHOWDAH PISTOLS4771/4772500Cal. .500 Made for a special 1-1/2" cartridge. These interesting pistols have 6-1/4" Damascus bbls engraved "Alexr Henry Edinburgh and London" on full length ribs fitted with one standing leaf express rear sights. Area behind rear sights and in front of raised portion in front of ribs are file cut. Raised portions at fronts hold silver beads. Rear portions of ribs are engraved "1" and "2" denoting a true pair, with "1" or "2" stamped on water tables and wood of forends. Bbl flats are stamped with Birmingham black powder proofs for 38 bore with SNs and "AH". Small sized round bodied Jones underlever actions are fitted with peninsula rebounding back locks with short flat faced serpentine hammers. Actions and locks are engraved with 80% coverage very nicely cut varying sized scroll. "Alexr Henry" is on each lockplate. Blued trigger guards have SNs on tangs. Dark European walnut grip stocks with checkered grips have steel caps fitted with sling eyes. Matching, very short splinter forends attach to bbls with sliding bolts through oval steel escutcheons. CONDITION: Excellent, as competently refinished. Bbls retain nearly all of a re-brown, with fair to good definition to pattern over a considerable number of light marks and dings. Actions and locks retain essentially all of a correctly colored re-hardening of St. Leger quality. Trigger guards retain nearly all of their lustrous re-blue, and stocks retain most of what appears to be their orig oil finish. Checkering does not appear to have been re-cut. Bores are very fine to excellent, with some scattered light pitting. Actions are tight. Locks are excellent. The top spur of the right hand hammer of pistol "1" is cracked and about ready to detach. Donald Dallas in his new book ALEXANDER HENRY RIFLEMAKER lists these pistols as "best" quality double barrel center fire pistols completed 3/3/1880. Finding a single Howdah pistol is difficult, very few pairs, especially by best makers, ever come to market. 53133-1 mgm105 (15,000-22,500)