Item ref: 5240
Private collection, United Kingdom
This charming and well-finished pair of pocket pistols represent a significant period of transitional innovation in English pistol-making, in part moving forwards from the characteristics of pistols produced within the sequential reigns of Queen Anne (d. 1714), and displaying some of the formative developments of the Georgian age.
The present pistols retain, however, the essential features of pocket-sized pistols of the true Queen Anne period, the most obvious being the compact bulbous shape of the butts and the one-piece construction of the box-like locks and breech chambers. The butts are each attached by an iron strap also forming the base of the lock-action, the forward end of the retaining screw extending vertically to join the barrel tang. The barrel tangs are separate to the breeches of the barrels and engraved with strawberry foliage. As separate components they are among the early characteristics upheld in this pair of pistols, together with the trigger-guards which are separate also, and the engraved large sliding safety-catches fitted over the short tails of the locks.
The warm figured tones of the walnut provide an attractive ground for the imaginative inlaid silver wire ornament. In place of the solid silver caps conventionally fitted over the pommels, the maker has constructed an addorssed pair of profile demon masks in extremely close-set silver wire; from these a scrolling design of silver tendrils flows over the remaining surfaces and involves an early rococo shell motif over the spines. While remaining as noticeable features of these pleasingly stubby ‘cannon’ barrels, the mouldings about the barrel muzzles and the breeches are now much less accentuated, and the earlier faceted breeches are now superseded by the rounded type, which were to remain a standard among the majority of pistols with turn-off cannon barrels for the remainder of the 18th century. In the present instance, the breech chambers are inscribed ‘LONDON’ on an upper flat, are signed ‘B. BROOKE’ beneath the pans, and are struck on the underside with London Proof Marks, together with the maker’s mark, in a diamond, the initials ‘B.B’ between a pair of small stars above and below.
In a reprise of the Queen Anne period, the pan-covers are once more retained solely by a conventional screw, without the additional support of a bridle. The very compact proportions of the present pistols (a mere 7in. overall) are a direct reflection of the new demand for concealable defensive firearms within the early Georgian era. The significant improvements to the national road system brought with it increased numbers of people now making journeys, and with that a corresponding infestation of lawlessness on the roads.
Benjamin (1) Brooke was apprenticed to the gunmaker John (1) Brooks in 1705. Benjamin’s statutory ‘Proof Piece’ was approved in 1718, the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers’ having granted his Freedom of the Company in the previous year, at the successful conclusion of his apprenticeship. As noted above, his mark is struck on the breeches of these pistols (in conjunction with the Proof marks of the Gunmakers’ Company), this being permitted as the consequence of the prior acceptance of his ‘Proof Piece’ and the addition of that mark to the copper Mark Plate of the Worshipful Company.
The mark of a new member of the Company would not be registered and duly recorded on the Mark Plate until the conclusion of a period of two years following the acceptance of the ‘Proof Piece’. From this we may conclude that the present pistols will not pre-date 1720.
While obtaining his Freedom of the Company would in theory permit a new member to commence his own business, from 1716 this alone was insufficient to commence trading as a gunmaker.
In a move to guard against the increased fraudulent submission of barrels for proof by ill-trained non-members of the Company, the Proof Master introduced an amendment to the Company Charter on 8th November 1716. This amendment required, upon pain of automatic rejection, that all barrels submitted for proof should first be struck with the mark of the member making the submission; upon passing proof, a barrel would only then be struck with the marks of the Company.
The first record of Benjamin Brookes’ place of work does not appear until 1731, at ‘the Crossed Guns’, near Red Lion Ct., Holborn, although it may be supposed that the business was already well established there. For the period 1721-31 the London Proof House records his submission of 208 muskets and 14 ½ pairs of pistols, all duly proved.
The politician and diarist of the period, John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol (1655-1751) recorded in July 1723: “Paid Benjamin Brooke ye Gun Smith in full for a pair of pistols made up with silver Knobbs ……. 10 guineas”.
In subsequent Gunmakers’ Company records, Brooke is next referred to in a return of gunmakers for 1756. He was followed into gunmaking by his two sons Perham and Benjamin (2), each of whom was apprenticed to their father.
Brooke died in Holborn in 1760, aged 71, leaving property at Aldington, near Evesham, to his daughter, Mary.