PAIR OF PERCUSSION PISTOLS Swiss, ca. 1810/35, Berne, Franz Ulrich. Blued octagonal barrels (L 20.1 cm), Cal. 12 mm, fine hair rifling, signed "Ulrich in Bern", adjustable rear sight, front sight on beam, tail screws framed with decorative gold bands. Converted from flintlock to percussion ca. 1835, cocks with animal heads. Lock plates signed "F.Ulrich / in Bern." Hair-triggers. Blued iron mounts, two ramrod sleeves, grip plates with applied four-leafed silver decoration. Walnut stocks, grips with a carved hatch pattern, carved grip base, steel ramrods. In matching walnut case, the interior lined with red fabric, ca. 1835, comprising: bullet pliers, powder measure, screwdriver, cleaning rod. L 33.8 cm Case: 40.2 × 24 × 6.5 cm. Franz Ulrich (1771-1845), a gunsmith from Schwyz, worked in Berne from 1804 to 1812 and was appointed Head of the Oberndorf Gun Manufactory in 1812. His exquisitely-crafted precision handguns were internationally sought after and could be found, inter alia, in the possession of Marshal Bernadotte, later King Charles XIV of Sweden, or Field Marshal Karl Philipp Prince of Schwarzenberg. Cf. Schneider: Schweizer Waffenschmiede, Zurich 1976, pp. 269-270. Eugène Heer: Der Neue Støckel, Schwäbisch Hall 1968, Vol. II, p. 1314.