Designs for the Decoration of a Percussion Pistol

Eusebio Zuloaga

ca. 1847 · Pen, ink, colored wash, and silver on paper · Arms and Armor

This sheet and two others in the collection (acc. nos. 2015.99 and 2015.100) are rare examples of finished design drawings for the decoration of firearms and edged weapons created in the workshop of Eusebio Zuloaga, gunmaker to the Spanish monarchs, keeper of the Royal Armory in Madrid, and the most famous Spanish metalworker of the mid-nineteenth century. This sheet records the decoration created for various parts of a highly elaborate cased pair of all-steel percussion pistols with accessories, which was made in the Zuloaga workshops in Madrid or Eibar. The set of pistols was stolen from the Higgins Armory Museum (Worcester, Mass.) in 1978 has never been recovered. These designs, therefore, provide invaluable evidence of the color and beauty of the missing originals.

Artist

Eusebio Zuloaga

Date

ca. 1847

Medium

Pen, ink, colored wash, and silver on paper

Culture

Spanish

Department

Arms and Armor

Credit line

Purchase, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Bequest, 2015