Help identifying an old pistol.

[Bandit240]

I've got an old pistol that I've had for many years. I know nothing of its history or anything about it. I know it won't work since there are some parts missing for the trigger and the wood bit is about gone, but it still looks good hanging on my wall. Im wondering if anyone here may know something about it, or can lead me in the direction of some info.

Now for some pictures.

Says London on this side.

I'm not sure what it says on this side.

Heres the hammer area.

Its got a flower looking stamp on the bottom of the trigger guard.

 

[bwhoffman]

...and an inline at that!

I dont know what it is, but it is old!

 

[poordevil]

Didn't Ketland use a flower? It is called a Box Lock

P

 

[Bandit240]

Thanks for the help so far guys. After looking up Ketland and Co ive found a few others that look pretty close to this one. Its nice to be able to put a makers name to the gun ive had for so long.

 

[Zonie]

It is a boxlock Flintlock pistol that was fairly common from the very early 1800's thru the mid 1800's.

Being a Flintlock it probably was made prior to 1835. About that time percussion caps became popular.

The "London" marking does not necessarily mean the gun was made in England as many of these were made in Belgium.

Look for small proof marks and let us know what you find.

 

[Mike Brooks]

It's english, the proofs are on the left side of the barrel.

 

[Bandit240]

I just uploaded 25 more pictures of it. They are detailed and show the inside of the gun. Yes, I took it apart, I've done it before so I know how to put it all back together. When i got it, the insides and barrel were full of dirt, i cleaned all that out years ago when i got it. I didn't scrub it or anything, just rinsed it out.

Im just going to post a link to all the pictures instead of posting them here.
http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/Bandit240/Firearms/

 

[JV Puleo]

English, reasonably good quality boxlock overcoat pistol ca1790-1800..."Ketland & Co." is the Thomas Ketland firm. (As opposed to W. Ketland & Co. which is his son, William) The Ketlands didn't "make" anything. They were jobbers. (And very wealthy ones at that. They also sold wine, beer, cordage, canvas, cannon and tableware) In firearms, they offered literally everything available at the time from cheap fowlers (at 17s each) to dueling pistols (at 300-500s)! All of their material came out of the Birmingham gun trade, especially these boxlock pistols which every British gunmaker sold and which all, or very nearly all, were made by unknown, faceless workmen in Birmingham. The B'ham trade was extremely specialized, so much so that its likely a dozen or more men worked on that pistol from a "mainspring filer" to the man who varnished the grip. In fact, there were no B'ham makers in the conventional American sense.

Thats a nice pistol though, with its' cannon barrel and fragments of wire inlay in the butt. It was one of their higher quality products. TK did have a London office, advertised as "Ketland's Wholesale Gun Warehouse" but the bulk of the trade was with America

 

[Bob Riegl]

:v Not to take anything away from the many old gunsmiths of other nations. The English smiths are to be revered as to the useful weapons they produced, many of which are still in a shootable(?) :hmm: condition ( as it were.) Though Ketland doesn't stand as high in my book as Manton; nonetheless there were many fantastic gunsmiths in an age where they did not have the machinery we have today.I love to go to the NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art and ogle their eclectic firearms collection. As a child I used to take buses and trains and walk to visit that museum for that single purpose. :hatsoff: "Doc"

 

[JV Puleo]

Birmingham private proofs...

 

It looks to me to be an English, Ketland box lock pistol, perhaps with a screw barrel. The barrel unscrews from the frame then powder is put into the exposed chamber and a ball placed on top of the powder. The barrel is screwed back into place and it is loaded.
Mark

 

[denster]

It's not a screw barrel. Check the photos. By the way on a screw barrel the ball goes in first then the powder and it screws back onto the frame.