Pair of Flintlock pistols by La Roche, gunmaker to Louis XV of France, French (Paris), 1750-60.

The walnut stocks are slightly carved with scrollwork and profusely inlaid with symetrically arranged scrollwork in gold wire. On the upper side of the butt is inlaid on one pistol a fleur-de-lis, and on the other, the cypher of Louis XV, King of France. The escutcheon plates of gold bear the royal arms of France. The steel mounts are chiselled in unusually high relief against a gold-plated ground, the ornament differing on each pistol.

Bernal Collection

These pistols were probably made for Louis XV, King of France (1715-74). They bear the Royal Arms of France and Louis' monogram and portrait.

The pistols are of exceptional quality. Their impact is entirely visual. They were designed to work but have never been fired and were probably never intended to be. On more restrained working guns the mounts combined practical necessity with decorative detailing. For these pistols the decoration provides their primary function. The stocks are so lavishly inlaid with scrollwork in gold wire that the walnut bases almost disappear. The locks and steel mounts are chiselled in high relief against a rich gold background with scenes from ancient mythology including Jason with the golden fleece and Hercules slaying the monster Geryones. The deep fire-blued barrels retain their original colour and are profusely mounted with chiselled gold war trophies.

The barrels are signed 'Les La Roches aux Galeries du Louvre'. Jean-Baptiste La Roche of Paris was one of the best gunmakers of the eighteenth-century. He was 'Archebusier du Roi' (Gunmaker to the King's) during Louis' reign and from 1740-42 was head of the Paris Gunmakers' Guild. In 1743 he was given an official residence in the Louvre where during his later career he worked with his son. Their workshop was renowned for its presentation firearms whose intended destination was the collector's cabinet rather than the hunting armoury.

Historical significance: Such pistols were made for Louis XV's own use or for presentation by him to a foreign royalty.

Provenance

Ralph Bernal (1783-1854) was a renowned collector and objects from his collection are now in museums across the world, including the V&A. He was born into a Sephardic Jewish family of Spanish descent, but was baptised into the Christian religion at the age of 22. Bernal studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and subsequently became a prominent Whig politician. He built a reputation for himself as a man of taste and culture through the collection he amassed and later in life he became the president of the British Archaeological Society. Yet the main source of income which enabled him to do this was the profits from enslaved labour.

In 1811, Bernal inherited three sugar plantations in Jamaica, where over 500 people were eventually enslaved. Almost immediately, he began collecting works of art and antiquities. After the emancipation of those enslaved in the British Caribbean in the 1830s, made possible in part by acts of their own resistance, Bernal was awarded compensation of more than £11,450 (equivalent to over £1.5 million today). This was for the loss of 564 people enslaved on Bernal's estates who were classed by the British government as his 'property'. They included people like Antora, and her son Edward, who in August 1834 was around five years old (The National Archives, T 71/49). Receiving the money appears to have led to an escalation of Bernal's collecting.

When Bernal died in 1855, he was celebrated for 'the perfection of his taste, as well as the extent of his knowledge' (Christie and Manson, 1855). His collection was dispersed in a major auction during which the Museum of Ornamental Art at Marlborough House, which later became the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A), was the biggest single buyer.

Firearms combined virtuoso craftsmanship with high quality engineering. Technical demands on gunsmiths were considerable. They had to adapt established designs to awkward shapes that might form a range of components in a variety of materials. These then had to be assembled to create a single piece which had to perform a complicated technical role and withstand explosive forces. Weap[ons were decorated using the same design sources as other art forms including architecture, sculpture, goldsmiths' work, stained glass and ceramics. Armour and weapons might be collected as works of art as much as military tools and were presented as gifts to honour ambassadors and other dignitaries.

As technical devices, guns attracted princely collectors. Louis' grandfather, Louis XIII is regarded as the first systematic firearms collector. Guns that survive from his Cabinet d'Armes, of which there are several examples in the V&A, are all marked behind the trigger with his inventory numbers. Louis XV was less systematic but knew the value of exquisitely crafted firearms as diplomatic gifts. A similar pair in the Palace of Capodimonte in Naples retains its original red morocco case lined with blue silk, possibly a gift from Louis to Prince Ferdinand, King of the Two Sicilies from 1759. A flintlock fowling gun in the Bayerisches National Museum, Munich (W.2890), decorated almost en suite with this pair of pistols and evidently by the same hand, is signed 'Arault à Versailles'.

These pistols are fitted with flintlock firing mechanisms. Flintlock guns largely superseded wheel-lock guns by the late 17th century. The flintlock's invention is credited to Marin Le Bourgeois, gunmaker to Louis XIII of France, in around 1610.

The flintlock was less complicated and more reliable than a wheel-lock. Its simplicity encouraged the development of smaller, lighter guns. Flintlocks could fire accurately for up to 100 metres. Their increasing accuracy encouraged wars to be fought at longer range.

Some flintlocks had spirally grooved or rifled barrels improving their accuracy and range. Flintlock guns with rifled barrels needed more cleaning and took longer to load. They were more commonly used in hunting than on the battlefield where guns were fired quickly in volleys.

Flintlocks in Operation

The flintlock was fired when the flint held in the cock, struck the steel pan (frizzen) opposite, causing sparks to ignite the priming powder.

Most flintlock guns were loaded from the muzzle with gunpowder and lead shot. These are pushed into the breech of the barrel with the ramrod. The ramrod is stored in a slot beneath the barrel.

An arm, or cock, at the back of the lock holds a sharp piece of flint. This is moved part of the way backwards until it clicks into position at half-cock. It has a safety catch to prevent the gun being fired accidentally.

On top of the lock is a flash pan which is charged with priming powder, a fine powder that ignites easily. The flash pan is opened by lifting the cover, called a frizzen. When the flash pan is filled with a measured dose of priming powder, the frizzen is then closed presenting a pan-shaped steel surface towards the cocked flint.

The cock is pulled back further, from half-cock to full-cock, releasing its safetly catch. When the trigger is pulled, the cock holding the flint springs forwards. The flint strikes the frizzen, opening it to reveal the priming powder, and causing sparks to fly when it strikes the hard steel surface. The sparks ignite the priming powder in the flash pan. The flash passes through a vent or touchhole into the breech of the barrel and ignites the main powder charge, and the gun fires.

These pistols were probably made for Louis XV, King of France (1715-74). They bear the Royal Arms of France and Louis' monogram and portrait. Such pistols were made for Louis XV's own use or for presentation by him to a foreign royalty.

The pistols are of exceptional quality. Their impact is entirely visual. They were designed to work but have never been fired and were probably never intended to be. The locks and steel mounts are chiselled in high relief against a rich gold background with scenes from ancient mythology including Jason with the golden fleece and Hercules slaying the monster Geryones. The deep fire-blued barrels retain their original colour and are profusely mounted with chiselled gold war trophies.

2243&A-1855