An Extremely Rare Cased 28-Bore Four-Barrelled Percussion Turn-Over Pistol
An Extremely Rare Cased 28-Bore Four-Barrelled Percussion Turn-Over Pistol
By J. Purdey, No. 314½ Oxford Street, London, No. 2119 For 1832
With sighted blue black barrel-block of one piece with four integral sunken ribs, case-hardened breech and tang made in one piece, the former engraved with guilloche, the latter grooved for sighting, finely engraved with a martial trophy and foliage, and fitted with bright foliate engraved sliding thumb-catch securing the barrels, case-hardened serial numbered foliate scroll engraved rounded back-action locks each signed in full on the tail and fitted with blued safety-catch behind the dolphin hammer (hammer spurs expertly repaired), the hammers each engraved with a martial trophy, chequered ebonised rounded butt, large blued D-shaped trigger-guard engraved on the bow with a martial trophy within guilloche borders, border engraved case-hardened ovoidal pommel with hinged foliate engraved butt-trap cover, border engraved vacant silver escutcheon, chequered forward trigger, and nearly all its original finish: in original lined and fitted brass-mounted mahogany case (split at the lock, keyhole escutcheon missing) with accessories including lacquered brass powder-measure, nipple-key and flask (cut-off spring incomplete), the lid (trade label missing) with flush-fitting brass carrying handle centred on a vacant circular brass escutcheon, London proof marks
15.1 cm. barrels
Sold for £13,750 inc. premium

Footnotes

  • Provenance;
    Sold in these Rooms, Antique Arms and Armour, 28 July 2005, lot 380

    Literature:
    L. Patrick Unsworth, The Early Purdeys, 1996, pp. 73-74, and 132, pls. 31-32.
    Recorded as 'A four-barrelled pistol with case complete' and sold to Lord Middleton on 11 February 1832 for £52.10.0.

    Only ten pistols of this type are recorded in Purdey's register of which only two, this being the only cased example, are known to survive

Category: Arms and Armour


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