Item ref: 2973
Private collection, United States
Cartouches stamped with the maker’s name H. Hadleyand London, locks signed H. Hadley, mounts bearing themaker’s mark of Jeremiah Ashley and London hallmarks for 1761
Formed of sighted two-stage barrels inlaid with two gold lines at the breech, gold vents, the top flat inlaid with two gold cartouches stamped with the maker’s name H. Hadley and London. The flat locks with swan-necked cocks, fitted with sliding safety-catches, signed H. Hadley and engraved with scrolling foliage. The walnut full-stocks well carved behind the barrel tangs and furnished with silver mounts bearing the maker’s mark of Jeremiah Ashley and London hallmarks for 1761 and comprising long-spurred butt-caps, trigger-guards and side-plates finely cast and chased in relief and moulded ramrod pipes retaining their original silver-tipped ramrods with ‘pig-tail’ worms.
Henry Hadley moved to the West End in 1745, and from 1755 – 1771 he occupied premises at Suffolk Street in the Strand. His outstanding skills earned him patronage at the highest levels: in the collection of HM The Queen at Windsor Castle, are two pairs of pistols by him bearing respectively the crests of the Prince of Wales and a Royal Duke, while in the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds, is another pair bearing the arms of the Fourth Duke of Marlborough.