Lot 160
160
A Very Rare Cased 88-Bore Hand-Rotated Six-Shot Double-Hammer Percussion Pistol
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus bu… Read more
A Very Rare Cased 88-Bore Hand-Rotated Six-Shot Double-Hammer Percussion Pistol

BY JAMES PURDEY, 314½ OXFORD STREET, LONDON, NO. 21, CIRCA 1835

Details
A Very Rare Cased 88-Bore Hand-Rotated Six-Shot Double-Hammer Percussion Pistol
By James Purdey, 314½ Oxford Street, London, No. 21, circa 1835
With case-hardened barrel cluster bored from the solid, the barrels divided by ribs, three of them signed 'Purdey. London' and fitted with bead fore-sight, at the centre of the barrels a steel screw-in ramrod with knurled finial, case-hardened action finely engraved with scrollwork, with engraved safety-catch on each side and a case-hardened flash-shield at the front, the tang engraved with the number '21', finely chequered figured walnut butt stamped with the number '18', scroll engraved blued trigger-guard and butt-trap, silver escutcheon, and nearly all its original finish: in original lined and fitted oak case with accessories including Sykes powder-flask, and bullet mould numbered '26', the lid (repaired) with small 'visiting card' trade label (key-hole escutcheon missing), London proof marks
8¾in. (22.2cm.)
Provenance
Ambler Collection, Clapham, North Yorkshire
Literature
W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, British Gunmakers Their Tradecards, Cases and Equipment 1760-1860, plate 458
L. Patrick Unsworth, The Early Purdeys, pp. 78-9, colour plate 49
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

Only two such six-shot double-hammer pistols are recorded, the other numbered '26'. The record of Purdey sales does not convey any idea of how many were built, and only one account has been identified that may refer to one of them: 'August 1834 - A 6 barrelled pistol - £12.12.0d.' - a price which affirms its superiority to a standard pepperbox revolver
Pistol No. 26, until recently in the collection of Edmund Greenwood, is in a relined and incorrectly repartitioned case. It is illustrated in Unsworth, op. cit, plate 41, and was sold by Wallis & Wallis, Lewes, Sussex, 13 February this year, lot 122 (£2,800 plus premium)

More from FINE ANTIQUE FIREARMS FROM THE W KEITH NEAL COLLECTION

View All
View All