European pistols
A pistol is a handgun. The English word was introduced in ca. 1570 – when early handguns were produced in Europe and is derived from the Middle French pistolet, meaning a small gun or knife. (1- Pair of flintlock pistols of Empress Catherine the Great, 1786 Russia; 2- Pair of flintlock pistols, 1750-70 , Scotland; 3- Pair of flintlock pistols, Italia , ca. 1686; 4- Pair of flintlock pistols made for Ferdinand IV, King of Naples and Sicily, Naples, 1768; 5- Pair of flintlock pistols, German , 1760 -70).
