An Antique Extremely Rare 33 Bore Flintlock Breech Loading Repeating Magazine Pistol On The Lorenzoni Principle By H.W. Mortimer, London, Gun Maker To His Majesty, Circa 1790 with swamped octagonal barrel 15.5cm signed in full in capitals along the top flat and engraved with a slender band of repeated foliage at the breech, pivoting fore sight, border engraved rounded action and bevelled back action lock, the former finely decorated with a starburst around the upper gas escape and with a flower head around the lower suspended from a ribbon.

A garland beneath entwined around the trigger guard, the latter signed on a ribbon held in the mouth of a lion in a landscape, a prone lioness nearby, replacement cock automatically cocked via a flat bar on the inside engaging with a circular breech block and operated by a curved side lever of tapering circular section with button terminal, hinged primer magazine cover (replaced) with spring-catch and engraved with a flower, border engraved tang plate decorated with a classical trophy of arms, hinged magazine cover for balls on the left engraved with a garland suspended from two ribbons against crossed palms, the tail behind engraved GUN MAKER TO HIS MAJESTY in an oval against an Eastern trophy and foliage, trigger guard engraved en suite on the bow, chequered rounded butt carved with spirally fluted pommel and flower head shaped cap, and border engraved vacant silver escutcheon. Overall length 48cm.

Literature: H. Lee Munson, The Mortimer Gunmakers 1753-1923, 1992, pp. 237-238

A similar example by the same maker and built for Vice Admiral Lord Nelson is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York . See also the only known example in its original case in the Royal Armouries, Leeds. Howard L. Blackmore, English Pistols, 1985, p. 25, figs. 45 and 46.