A MASSIVE CASED L-BORE PERCUSSION PUNT GUN

Details

A MASSIVE CASED L-BORE PERCUSSION PUNT GUN

THE BARREL ALMOST CERTAINLY FORGED FOR COLONEL PETER HAWKER ON 13 OCTOBER, 1849, THE LOCK BY PURDEY

Converted from tubelock, with rebrowned twist sighted barrel of exceptional length engraved at the breech 'Alfred Clayton. Lymington', '- Barrel By Clive -' and 'Iron Duke', large plain tang, signed blued back-action lock with safety-catch (hammer retaining screw missing), short figured wooden stock, brass mounts including barrel-bolt escutcheons (barrel-bolt missing) and fore-end plate, folding iron trigger pierced for a release cord, and brass-mounted copper ring for attachment to a stanchion: in brass-mounted oak case (minor damage) with brass carrying ring at each end, and containing a ramrod with brass-mounted iron worm, complete with canavs slip-cover and fitted wooden box containing percussion caps, shot and twelve cylindrical shot and powder charges each of tinned iron, the former painted black, the latter red, Birmingham proof marks
98in. (248.9cm.) barrel (3)

Lot Essay

Alfred Clayton is recorded at the High Street, Lymington between 1843 and 1855. On 2 December, 1850 he registered a design (No. 2568) for an improved tube for Col. Hawker's ignition. Between 17 January, 1838 and 12 January, 1850 numerous references to him appear in Colonel Peter Hawker's Diary.
The barrel forger Clive (of Birmingham) is also mentioned in Hawker's Diary, and between 10 October and 28 November, 1849 numerous entries are made regarding his 'forging of my newly invented single stanchion gun', almost certainly the barrel offered here. See Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, Bart. (Ed.), The Diary of Colonel Peter Hawker, vol. II, 1893

'Iron Duke' refers to the Duke of Wellington under whom Hawker served in the Penninsular War

More from Arms & Armour

View All