Jan van Solingen
This
small flintlock pistol is signed Jan van Solingen van Amsterdam on the lock.
The
barrel is neither signed nor proof marked.
Length of
the pistol is 28 cm.
Barrel
length is 14 cm (and was probably make shorter long time ago).
The
pistol was made around 1740-1750.
Jan van
Solingen was a gun maker in Amsterdam between 1730 and 1760.
He had
two sons who were also gun makers.
One of
these sons, Gijsbert, became director of Amsterdam gun factory. He died 1804.
His
grandfather, Jan Flock, had come from Solingen in Germany, to the Dutch city of
Utrecht in 1660.
He moved
to Amsterdam in 1673 and from then on their family name was changed into 'van
Solingen'.
His son
Jacob van Solingen, father of Jan, was also a gun maker (1694-1727).
Many more
family members, 13 in total, of the Van Solingen gun makers dynasty can be
identified in Utrecht and Amsterdam between 1608 and 1804.
Bert
