3318 - A remarkable pair of air pistols, Girardoni system by Störmer of Herzberg, circa 1820

A remarkable pair of air pistols, Girardoni system by Störmer of Herzberg, circa 1820 Octagonal barrels with eight-groove rifling in 9 mm caliber. Inserted brass front sights, iron flip-up rear sights. Side-mounted loading tube for round balls with a spring-loaded loading slide. Locks with cocking screws, each signed “Störmer”; the lock backplates with safety levers are engraved “Herzberg.” Brass frames with screw-mounted, leather-covered ramrods. The leather covering on one pistol is incomplete. Brass mountings; one trigger guard is missing. Inserted wooden cleaning rods with bone ferrules (one missing). Length: 38 cm each. The air rifle, developed around 1779 by the Tyrolean Bartolomeo Girardoni, featured a side-mounted breech-loading tubular magazine that allowed for multiple shots in rapid succession. Ernst August Störmer (1776–1857) became Royal Master Gunsmith at the Herzberg arms factory in 1802. Condition: II -