Pair of Flintlock Pistols of Empress Catherine the Great (1729-1796). Culture: Russian, Saint Petersburg. Dimensions: L. of each 14 1/2 in. (36.8 cm). Gunsmith: Johan Adolph Grecke (Russian, Saint Petersburg, recorded 1755-90). Date: 1786.
These pistols are part of a deluxe garniture of ivory-stocked hunting arms made for Empress Catherine the Great (reigned 1762-96), whose intial (E for Ekaterine) is on the escutcheons of the grips. The garniture, which originally consisted of these pistols, a fowling piece dated 1786 (National Museum, Warsaw), and a rifle (whereabouts unknown), was later given to her favorite, Prince Stanislas August Poniatowski (1732-1798), whom she backed as king of Poland (reigned 1763-95). Firearms with ivory stocks, generally out of fashion in western Europe by the eighteenth century, were in vogue in the ostentatious Russian court during the last quarter of the century.