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A Rare Cased 17-Bore Percussion D.B. Sporting Gun image 1
A Rare Cased 17-Bore Percussion D.B. Sporting Gun image 2
Lot 252

A Rare Cased 17-Bore Percussion D.B. Sporting Gun
By Beckwith, London, No. 1924, Circa 1810

23 September 2020, 10:30 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £765 inc. premium

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A Rare Cased 17-Bore Percussion D.B. Sporting Gun
By Beckwith, London, No. 1924, Circa 1810

Converted from sliding primer, with re-browned damascus twist sighted barrels signed in gold gothic script along the rib, and with two gold lines in front of each breech, breeches each with pierced platinum plug and three gold lines between, tang engraved with foliage inhabited by a game bird and a gun dog's mask, flat locks each signed in gothic script and decorated on the tail with foliage issuing from an eagle's head, all within a border of guilloche, foliate scroll engraved dolphin hammers, figured half-stock (repaired during the gun's working life with an iron plate secured by screws around the trigger-plate finial) with chequered grip, border engraved russet steel butt-plate and trigger-guard each decorated with scrolling foliage, the latter retaining some original blueing on the inside, trigger-plate with pineapple finial, rear ramrod-pipe with finial en suite, gold escutcheon engraved with owner's monogram, and brass-tipped ramrod: in original mahogany case fitted and lined in faded navy blue velvet with some accessories including Sykes patent powder-flask with bevelled bag-shaped body and adjustable flip-top (cut-off spring incomplete), four burnished steel double-ended shot dispensers (one lid missing), and a burnished steel oil bottle, the interior of the lid with maker's illustrated trade label (stained), the exterior with flush-fitting brass carrying handle centred on a circular vacant brass escutcheon, London proof marks
74.5 cm. barrels

Footnotes

William Andrew Beckwith was apprenticed to Wattell Clark in 1785 and was elected Master of the Gunmaker's Company in 1808, 1814, 1825 and 1840, the year before his death. He is recorded at 58 Skinner Street between 1802 and 1841. In 1811 the Rev. Alexander Forsyth took a lawsuit against Beckwith successfully claiming that the 'patent' sliding primer lock was covered by his patent of 1807, although it is thought that the lock was actually invented by Joseph Vickers, a former workman of Forsyth's. For more information see D.H.L. Back,Great British Gunmakers, Forsyth & Co.: Patent Gunmakers, 1995, pp. 155, 176-7 and 198

Additional information

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