Collection Highlights – The Hercules Pistols

The Wallace Collection’s Arms and Armour Curator, Tobias Capwell introduces these two flint-lock pistols made for King Louis XIV of France.

This extraordinary pair of pistols was made for King Louis XIV of France. They are of the very highest quality, in keeping with the status of their royal owner. The barrels have been heat-blued and richly overlaid in gold. The stocks, of walnut, are carved in high relief with depictions of Hercules fighting the Nemean Lion and Samson fighting the Philistines. The theme of Hercules and the Lion is echoed elsewhere in the weapons’ decoration through the use of lions’ skins and masks.

Film by Jamie Isbell, music by Oscar Webster Bell.