PAIR OF FLINTLOCK PISTOLS German, ca. 1750, Michael Bayer in Würzburg. Round barrels (L 24.8 cm), Cal. 14.3 mm, octagonal chamber. Signed Michael Bayer in Würzburg on the barrel. Weapon numbers 1 and 2, silver sight. Crowned lockplate and cocks, carved vine decoration. Gilt brass mounts, opulently cast and engraved decoration: hunter with dog, deer and rocailles. Walnut stocks carved, one with short crack. Wooden ramrods with brass tip. L (entire) 39 cm. Provenance: - Charles Draeger Collection, Sotheby's Monaco Auction, 1987, Lot No. 82. - Auction Fischer, Lucerne, 12 September 2013, Lot No. 82. - Swiss private collection. A rare pair of hunting pistols made by Michael Bayer, a gunsmith working in Würzburg from ca. 1730 to 1760. Cf. Eugène Heer: Der Neue Støckel, Schwäbisch Hall 1968, Vol. I, p. 69. Hans Schedelmann: Die Grossen Büchsenmacher, Braunschweig 1972, p. 238.