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A Cased Pair Of Scottish 50-Bore Percussion Duelling Or Target Pistols By Alex.r Martin, Glasgow, Mid-19th Century
The medals and associate ephemera and uniforms of Arthur Watts, 6th Inniskilling Dragoons
A Pair Of Highland All-Metal Percussion Belt Pistols Signed Paton & Walsh Perth, Mid 19th century
A Silver-Mounted Left-Hand Dagger, probably German, Italian or English Late 16th Century Or Later
FOUR REPRODUCTION CARVED POWDER HORNS/FLASKS.late 20th century.
THREE CARVED COCONUT ITEMS.18th/19th century.
A COLLECTION OF ANTIQUE AND REPRODUCTION POWDER FLASKS AND RELATED SPORTING ITEMS.
THREE VICTORIAN ARMS AND ARMOUR DECORATIVE ITEMS.
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A Very Rare Cased 54-Bore Rifled Target Pistol With Left-Hand Lock image 1
A Very Rare Cased 54-Bore Rifled Target Pistol With Left-Hand Lock image 2
Lot 316

A Very Rare Cased 54-Bore Rifled Target Pistol With Left-Hand Lock
By James Purdey, 314½ Oxford Street, London, No. 1784 For 1829

Fine Antique Arms & Armour Including An Important Group Of British Firearms
23 September 2020, 10:30 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £17,562.50 inc. premium

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A Very Rare Cased 54-Bore Rifled Target Pistol With Left-Hand Lock
By James Purdey, 314½ Oxford Street, London, No. 1784 For 1829

With rebrowned twist octagonal sighted barrel signed in full along the top flat and rifled with sixteen bright spiral grooves, case-hardened patent breech stamped '1764' and with platinum line and pierced platinum plug, tang finely engraved with a scallop shell and scrolling foliage, signed border engraved flat detented lock and dolphin hammer decorated with foliate scrollwork, engraved blued safety-catch, ebonised half-stock with rounded chequered butt, border engraved case-hardened steel mounts comprising ovoidal pommel-cap engraved with a feathered design centred on the retaining screw engraved as a flower-head, trigger-guard with a martial trophy on the bow, trigger-plate with pineapple-shaped finial engraved with a scallop shell and fore-end cap with a starburst, adjustable set trigger, vacant silver escutcheon and barrel-bolt escutcheons, and some old finish (minor surface pitting, mainly on the barrel): in oak case fitted and lined in red baize with accessories including brass-mounted powder-flask with body covered in black pigskin, loading rod and mallet, and steel bullet mould numbered '2755', the interior of the lid with maker's trade label, London proof marks
24.4 cm. barrel

Footnotes

Provenance
W. Keith Neal Collection
Christie's London, Fine Antique Firearms from the W. Keith Neal Collection, 25 October 2001, lot 164

Literature
W. Keith Neal & D.H.L. Back, British Gunmakers Their Trade Cards, Cases and Equipment 1760-1860, 1980, p.123, pl. 453
L. Patrick Unsworth, The Early Purdeys,1996, pp. 64 and 131

Originally sold to Falconer Atlee Esq. of Wandsworth on 28 September 1829 as a 'best finished Pistol with Mahogany case and apparatus' for £15 plus part exchange: the case and accessories £3.13.16d.

This pistol has the distinction of being the only single-barrelled Purdey pistol recorded with a left-hand lock. It is also the earliest recorded instance of a Purdey pistol with a blackened stock. Whatever the purpose of its unusual design, it was returned to Purdey, who within four months of the original sale, sold it to his son-in-law, Joseph Lang

Additional information

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A Cased Pair Of Scottish 50-Bore Percussion Duelling Or Target Pistols By Alex.r Martin, Glasgow, Mid-19th Century
The medals and associate ephemera and uniforms of Arthur Watts, 6th Inniskilling Dragoons
A Pair Of Highland All-Metal Percussion Belt Pistols Signed Paton & Walsh Perth, Mid 19th century
A Silver-Mounted Left-Hand Dagger, probably German, Italian or English Late 16th Century Or Later
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