Italian flintlock pistol

[Marcus den toom]

Hi Matus, a very nice pistol indeed.

The Cominazzo name is a very respected one, Der neue Stockel dedicates 3 full pages of names at this family. Like most good Italian families the cominazzo also had a lot of members.

What troubles me when looking at your pistol, is that it does not bear the carasteristtics of a cominazzo pistol. The barrel is not typical (see picture) and also the decorations seem a bit unorthodox.
The name Cominazzo is also spelled wrong with appears to be a K?

I fear this is a period fraud example, like many others i have enountered. Hopefully i am wrong.

[hbhansen]

Sorry, didn't read this post well enough

Originally Posted by Marcus den toom

Hi Matus, a very nice pistol indeed.

The Cominazzo name is a very respected one, Der neue Stockel dedicates 3 full pages of names at this family. Like most good Italian families the cominazzo also had a lot of members.

What troubles me when looking at your pistol, is that it does not bear the carasteristtics of a cominazzo pistol. The barrel is not typical (see picture) and also the decorations seem a bit unorthodox.
The name Cominazzo is also spelled wrong with appears to be a K?

I fear this is a period fraud example, like many others i have enountered. Hopefully i am wrong.

[Matus]

Hi,

honestly, I haven't noticed it... The lock caught always my full attention. I agree then to the period fraud. How would you date it?

Regards,
Matus

[fernando]

Hi Matus,
It wasn't such an uncommon procedure to 'baptize' guns and swords with the names of famous masters of the period. This doesn't mean that the baptized piece is necessarily of worse quality; only that the unknown smiths tried to reach an added value with such behaviour.
Your pistol looks excelent and the date you suggested (XVIII century) may well be the correct one.
... All just an opinion; other members will have a more accurate diagnosis.

[Marcus den toom]

This is indeed a very nice and good quality pistol, so the value should still be "priceless"

Only the screws holding the lock in place look a bit strange, other than that, this is a very neat pistol, worthy of a good collection.

As far as the Cominazzo part, as stated in my earlier post.. i doubt it to be of the family itself, but nevertheless as Fernando points out, this is stil a good quality pistol.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Salaams all ~ Lazarino Kominazzo was a great 17thC. master gun maker... see http://transantique.com/articles/view/id/365/ for a short rendition by Catoire de Bionkur ..

All quite puzzling since they both appear to be the same person and when you realize that between 1600 and 1635 it was quite common for signatures to be forged. In fact the master gun making house of Cominazzo hardly did any complete weapons but focused on gun barrels thus it is hardly surprising that in putting together a weapon from bought in Cominazzo parts that the signature was copied...

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

... see http://transantique.com/articles/view/id/365/ for a short rendition by Catoire de Bionkur ...

I only see a link to a commercial shop & auction site, Ibrahiim; no article on Cominazzo
... Wrong link ?

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Salaams all ~ Here I have extracted the relevant detail from a web source http://transantique.com/articles/view/id/365/ on the subject of Lazarino Kominazzo ~ it was a fairly badly engineered translation and I hope I have polished it up a little.

Catoire de Bonkur After his father withdrew from life as a rather successful merchant Catoire inherited his massive fortune. He also tried to carry on business, however, he was not interested in the fathers business, and he soon completely departed from it. The fatherly inheritance substantially stimulated Bionkur's interest in collecting where originally he collected ancient engravings and rare books.

He soon became fascinated in the art of weapons collecting. For two decades Bionkur brought together one of the largest private weapon collections in the territory of Russia. Especially valuable there were ancient target guns and fowling pieces. Documentary certificates on the first acquisitions of the weapon of Catoire de Bionkur are lost, however, thanks to the correspondence now researched, and by reverse engineering the exhibits by checking through various auctioneering logs and notes it has been possible to pinpoint many of the acquisitions.

Bionkur had excellent relations with many known collectors and dealers in antiques. He spent a lot of time in Europe where he familiarized with the antiquarian weapon market and came into contacts to known weapon firms. The faultless knowledge of an environment and wide friendly relations with antiquaries helped Catoire de Bionkur to replenish the collection by choosing unique samples of the weapons.

In 1903 in a Paris auction Bionkur acquired fourteen first-class guns and 3 guns created in France, Italy and Spain. Total amount of his purchases exceeded four thousand francs. Among the rarities acquired by the collector, there was a unique silicon gun created by the Madrid master in 1731, and also an Italian gun of the middle of the seventeenth century with the wheel lock, made by the famous master Lazarino Kominazzo. Bionkur was the frequenter of weapon shops across all Europe. He recorded in the smallest details all the information on the exhibits which he would later hand to the museum for cataloguing.

Catoire de Bionkura's life, the known collector and the patron, ended absolutely suddenly in Paris. All exhibits of his collection in 1913 were transferred to a museum for scientific and public use.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.