NO. 14031T
Details
A Cased Gold-Mounted Royal Presentation 54-Bore Tranter Patent Five-Shot Double-Action Percussion Revolver, supplied by Garrards to the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, in 1869
No. 14031T
With border engraved blued octagonal sighted barrel signed 'R. S. Garrard. &. Co. London' above the cylinder and 'Wilkinson Pall Mall' in front of the arbor pin, blued frame engraved with interlaced vines and strapwork, blued safety-stop, arbor pin and arbor pin catch, case-hardened cylinder engraved en suite with the frame and twice with the crest and motto of the Prince of Wales, bright hammer and engraved rammer, and solid gold trigger-guard cast and chased scrollwork in relief on the bow, ebony butt within a gold cage of pierced and chased scrollwork, the pommel with gold-set oval cap of crystal bearing the crowned cypher AE, retaining nearly all its original finish throughout: in original fitted mahogany case lined in burgundy velvet with accessories including white-metal Hawksley flask, and engraved brass bullet mould, the lid with flush-fitting brass handle, London proof marks
12in. (30.5cm.)
No. 14031T
With border engraved blued octagonal sighted barrel signed 'R. S. Garrard. &. Co. London' above the cylinder and 'Wilkinson Pall Mall' in front of the arbor pin, blued frame engraved with interlaced vines and strapwork, blued safety-stop, arbor pin and arbor pin catch, case-hardened cylinder engraved en suite with the frame and twice with the crest and motto of the Prince of Wales, bright hammer and engraved rammer, and solid gold trigger-guard cast and chased scrollwork in relief on the bow, ebony butt within a gold cage of pierced and chased scrollwork, the pommel with gold-set oval cap of crystal bearing the crowned cypher AE, retaining nearly all its original finish throughout: in original fitted mahogany case lined in burgundy velvet with accessories including white-metal Hawksley flask, and engraved brass bullet mould, the lid with flush-fitting brass handle, London proof marks
12in. (30.5cm.)
Provenance
By tradition presented by Albert Edward, Prince of Wales to Prince Abdulhamid (later Sultan Abdulhamid II, reigned 1876-1909) in April 1869, on a state visit to Constantinople, following the visit to London and Windsor by the Sultan and his son in July 1867. Subsequently given by Abdulhamid to 'Sheik al-Islam', religious leader. The pistol reappeared in Scotland in 1955, when the late Robin Braid-Taylor purchased it from a gillie, who had been given it by an American sportsman who had apparently acquired it in Constantinople in 1924 while posted to the American consulate during the regime of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Robin Braid-Taylor then sold the pistol to the late W.J.F. Ward in 1963