Original Items: Only One Set Available. A fine brace of Flintlock military style pistols produced by the gunmaker Henry Delany who worked in London from 1690 until 1750. They have 10″ barrels with London proof marks are 17″ in overall length. The mounts are all brass, with English Walnut wood stocks. Barrels are secured from the rear by a tang screw rising from inside the trigger guard. Plain banana shaped locks are signed H. DELANY. Brass escutcheons are both engraved:
T.G. SHIRBURN CASTLE 1705
These pistols are typical of those used by a Household Militia force in the event of social unrest or more likely, at that time, of French invasion.
SHIRBURN CASTLE near Thames not very far from Oxford North West of London was the family home of part of the famous Gage family who had been active in English Politics since the 1540s era of King Henry VIII. Thomas Gage the current resident in 1700 outfitted the castle with pistols and muskets all marked to Gage family. In 1716 Gage sold the Castle to the 1st Earl of Macclesfield and the Castle remained the seat for the Earls until 2004 when the current Earl, the ninth was evicted by his own Estate Trustees supposedly for misdirecting family assets. The castle had been put in Trust by the eighth Earl to avoid debilitating taxation and effectively the family…
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