Two Percussion Exhibition Pistols

Commissioned by the renowned Paris gunmaking firm of Le Page, these are the only known pistols executed by Antoine Vechte (1799–1868), a virtuoso silversmith, sculptor, and chiseler, who was famous in his day as the "nineteenth-century Cellini" in reference to the accomplished Renaissance artist Benvenuto Cellini. The pistols are unique in their all-steel construction and in the variety of highly original Renaissance-inspired figural ornament. One of the pistols (acc. no. 2013.514.2) was probably not finished when its companion (acc. no. 2013.514.1) was shown at the French Industry Exhibition in Paris in 1849. Instead, it appears to have been completed by Vechte in London, to which he had emigrated. It certainly was featured at the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in London in 1851, where Vechte received a prize medal for his collective achievements.

Credit: Purchase, Ronald S. Lauder Gift, 2013