A duelling pistol is a type of pistol that was manufactured in matching pairs to be used in a duel, when duels were customary. Duelling pistols are often single-shot flintlock or percussion black-powder pistols which fire a lead ball. Not all fine, antique pairs of pistols are duelling pistols, though they may be called so.
French cased duelling pistols by Nicolas Noël Boutet. Single shot, flintlock, rifled, .58 caliber, blued steel, Versailles, 1794–1797. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
A pair of American flintlock duelling pistols made by Simeon North, ca. 1815–20. Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession Number: 96.5.36, .149 They are fitted with spurs on the trigger guard to improve the shooter's grip. They also have octagonal barrels, often seen on later duelling pistols. The barrels are 10 inches (250 mm) long and are .56-inch (14 mm) calibre
A pair of engraved and gilded French percussion lock duelling pistols in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The set includes a small casting ladle for pouring molten lead and a bullet mould. And also a mallet for loading the guns
Late model English duelling pistols fired by percussion cap, bearing the Royal Warrant on the case
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people with matched weapons.
The Code Of Honor—A Duel in the Bois De Boulogne, Near Paris, wood-engraving after Godefroy Durand, Harper's Weekly (January 1875)
Depiction of a judicial combat in the Dresden codex of the Sachsenspiegel (early to mid-14th century), illustrating the provision that the two combatants must "share the sun", i.e. align themselves perpendicular to the sun so that neither has an advantage.
Minamoto no Yoshihira and Taira no Shigemori (Japan in 1159)
Commemorative poster for the fourth centennial of the Disfida di Barletta, the Challenge of Barletta, fought on 13 February 1503 between 13 Italian and 13 French knights all shown wearing full plate armour.
