every once in a while I get a crazy lead
on something I just have to follow up on
and a couple of days ago Alex my weapons
expert called to tell me he's got
something I'm going to love lined up
across the pond so I hopped on a plane
and I'm here in London Rick meet the
Finers Peters the father Rowley and red
also work with him much like I work with
my father and in fact Peter and my
father have been friends for about 40
years so I've known this family a long
time from the looks of it you definitely
have some incredible stuff here if you
follow through our back room some of the
rarest pieces we have in our back room
so that's where you keep the good stuff
follow me all right
the business is a family business which
was started over 50 years ago by my
father essentially we deal in arms and
armor from Roman and Greek times and all
the way through to the 19th century we
were excited when Alex called we're very
happy to see them we certainly knew we
had some pieces which might interest
them oh so this is where the real fancy
stuff is that
the law the pieces here have fascinating
provenance summer which is royal one of
the pieces I'd like to show you guys is
this pair of pistols here by John
Christie that is some crazy work made in
Scottish style by a Scot but made
actually in his own private workshop in
the Tower of London George the third
commissioned John Christie to come down
from Scotland to make dress pistols and
suchlike for diplomatic gifts you'd
never fire anything like that no wood
they weren't really design the fire they
were designed to look good at in
basically in formalwear
they were completely functional sure no
maker would ever make a pair of pistols
you know unless they functional
interestingly they have a proof mark
just here which is actually the private
Tower of London proof mark which was
mostly done for royal pieces okay what
are they made out of them I'm assuming
steel barrels they're all steel and then
these are gilt brass stopped very
unusual very very rare they have a
wonderful grotesque face on the on the
bust of the pistol and sir
in all of this how is all of this work
done this is all raved chiseled and
engraved yeah okay pick one up yeah sure
it makes you feel royal yeah that's just
amazing and the style of these pistols
is traditionally securely Scottish you
don't find all steel pistols anywhere
else really in the world that is pretty
incredible what's that one right there
the ivory one it's not ivory no that's
stag horn so this is made in 1600 and
it's made for the Saxon Court in Germany
it's one of only a few that have ever
come on to the art market this is a
walnut stop it's inlaid with stag horn
and then the decoration is dogs and
grotesque faces chasing rabbits and so
on so that that's a wheel lock this is a
wheel lock about sixteen hundred and
eight yeah and wheel locks typically are
quite a bit bigger they are that's
probably a half scale so the the purpose
of making it smaller was probably for a
boy
yeah hey check this thing out it's
beautiful what's really interesting
about the mechanism is you wind it and
this is a tightly wound spring that
starts once you let it go it starts to
spin and there's a little door here that
door opens up and create sparks so the
wheel spinning the Pyrates touching down
on it discs and all the sparks come up
which lights the priming powder which
fires the gun extremely complicated
incredibly complicated how many did you
say three I believe only three I've ever
come on to the art market yeah so how
much is the wheel like the wheel looks
140,000 pounds okay I think I'll pass on
this one but how much are these there
are a hundred thousand pounds a hundred
thousand pounds yeah
they tick all the boxes they have a
great name or you know great maker great
condition and and they're beautiful
they're works of art so would you take
eighty thousand pounds problem wouldn't
take 80,000 pounds but I would take
ninety thousand pounds for me would you
take eighty-five thousand it's like
$105,000 America
I'll take 85,000 pounds you have the
time all right
oh yeah I bought you bother I mean
they're fantastic I'm thrilled well
thanks for bringing me here they're
absolutely amazing appreciate the
business wait
thanks alone chiz alright I shouldn't be
in here any longer I might buy something
else I might want to stay though
you