Guns International #: 102233918

Category - Antique Shotguns - Flintlock - Antique Rifles - Blunderbuss

Category
Antique Shotguns - Flintlock
Antique Rifles - Blunderbuss

A CURIOUS ENGLISH BLUNDERBUSS WITH SPRING BAYONET IN EXCELLENT MECHANICAL CONDITION

Description:
The original combat shotgun with an integral spring bayonet in excellent mechanical condition! Please see the video of the bayonet being deployed.

Blunderbusses like this were popular defensive weapons, particularly for guarding coaches from highwaymen in 18th and early 19th centuries in England. They provided significant firepower, a better chance of hitting your adversary, and could be loaded more easily due to the flared muzzle.   

Everything about this gun testifies to it being English and early – the overall form, the low profile of the comb, the shape of the butt (larger toward the toe), the lack of checkering (a late 18th century convention), the shape of the brass barrel (octogen to wedding band to round), the lack of a patent breach (although this may be typical of blunderbusses), the form of the brass furniture (the pineapple finial and the tang of the trigger guard, the butt plate tang, the entry thimble and thimble), the architecture of the lock (the form, the non-rainproof pan, and the tail of the mainspring), and the bayonet mechanism.

However, the top of the breach of the barrel is unmarked with either a maker’s name, London, or other location.

Moreover, there are no proof marks visible on the barrel which you would typically expect to see near the breach on the flat left of the top flat of any English gun. We did not, however, remove the barrel from the stock. The forward barrel keeper does not want to advance far enough to remove the barrel.

Fortunately, the lock plate engraved with “R. Wilson” in script gives us a significant clue. It’s an English enough surname we suppose. Nigel Brown’s British Gunmakers, Volume Two – Birmingham, Scotland & the Regions identifies a Robert Wilson as a gun and rifle maker at John Street, Birmingham from 1811 to 1828 and at High Street, Bordesley in 1829 but this gun strikes us as earlier as explained above. Geoffrey and Susan Boothroyd’s book Boothroyds’ Revised Directory of British Gunmakers doesn’t identify any R. Wilson. Digging deeper, we find in A. Merwyn Carey’s book English, Irish and Scottish Firearms Makers the following listing: “Wilson, R. (1720-1750) shop in London. Made cannon barrel boxlock flintlock pocket pistols and flintlock holster pistols; also brass barrel flintlock coach blunderbusses.”

BINGO?

Not necessarily. To further confuse matters, the friction roller at the end of the frizzen spring is too late of a convention to have been manufactured by the R. Wilson identified by Carey. The friction roller was a late 18th century development and Carey’s R. Wilson appears to have closed up shop in 1750. The roller was designed to reduce friction of the frizzen by pivoting the frizzen on the roller rather than on the flat surface of the spring itself and thereby speed ignition of the gun. Faster ignition meant greater accuracy. It is possible, I suppose, the frizzen spring could be a later replacement. 

In the end, we can’t explain the apparent lack of any British proof marks on the barrel. Regardless, we are confident it is a British gun. R. Wilson appears to be either a mid-18th century London maker or an early 19th century Birmingham maker. Either attribution is imperfect. If the former, the frizzen spring with friction roller must surely be a replacement or modification. If the latter, it fails to incorporate a handful of generally accepted technological advancements of the period and fails to observe British proof laws. In either case, this is a lovely old British flintlock blunderbuss with spring bayonet and lots of visual appeal.

SOLD

Antique: Yes
Model: blunderbuss