PAIR OF PERCUSSION PISTOLS

Italy / Naples, ca. 1840, officer's weapons, Salvatore Mazza.
Round barrels (L 17.3 cm), Cal. 17.5 mm, shield-shaped marks on the tail screws, impressed mark "MAZZA NAPOLI" in gold, with a sun on top, rear sight notch, brass bead sight. Flat lock plates, signed "Mazza", rounded cocks. Iron trigger guard with finger hooks, front shaft ends and slide plates of nickel-silver. Walnut half-stocks, angled grips decorated with a hatch pattern, oval black grip plates with primer containers and hinged covers, steel ramrods. With contemporary wooden box.
L 31.5 cm.

Mazza, who can be traced back to Naples from 1820 to 1860, initially the Director of the Royal Arms Factory, went into business for himself, opening a store with a large gunsmith's workshop. He was one of the best Italian gunsmiths of his time. The pair of pistols on offer with a military caliber was suitable as an officer's weapon, thus also for Swiss officers in Neapolitan service. Cf. Bruno Barbiroli: Repertorio storico degli Archibugiari Italiani dal. Eugène Heer: Der Neue Støckel, Schwäbisch Hall 1968, Vol. II, p. 779.