• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

My new toy

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Redmoon

40 Cal
Joined
Apr 28, 2020
Messages
331
Reaction score
380
Location
South Rim, Utah
Check this out! Just arrived today and I cant take my eyes off it. Antique 45 cal (havent confirmed caliber) Belgium made damascus barrel pocket pistol with some nice engravings. ELG * proof mark and 137 are the only markings. Any additional info you guys might have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for looking.
 

Attachments

  • 20200505_131157.jpg
    20200505_131157.jpg
    55.7 KB · Views: 121
  • 20200505_131226.jpg
    20200505_131226.jpg
    50.1 KB · Views: 123
  • 20200505_131223.jpg
    20200505_131223.jpg
    52.1 KB · Views: 121
  • 20200505_131244.jpg
    20200505_131244.jpg
    52.2 KB · Views: 110
  • 20200505_131202.jpg
    20200505_131202.jpg
    52 KB · Views: 118
Belgium produced thousands of them and many went to the US. If the pistol was to be sold in other European countries or the UK, the country importing it, would send the gun to that country’s national proof house to be reproofed.

Its a boxlock action in that the hammer is in the middle and is covered halfway on both sides of the action. Usually, boxlock pistols have the nipple centered on top of the barrel to face a hammer centered. Yours has the nipple off to the right a bit, which is still normal.

Belgium proofmark usually is a oval with “LGE” inside the oval. This refers to Belgium’s national proofhouse in Liege. Very rarely will a Belgium-made firearm have a manufacturer’s name on it. The largest company was of course, FN, Fabrique Nationale. Quite a few will be partially or fully engraved.

Belgium in the 19th century was what China is today, offering reasonable products utilizing cheap labor, and the ability to flood the market at prices that American could not complete on the same level.

Hope this helps.
 
Very interesting thank you very much. What in your opinion would you say this one is worth? Action and trigger work as they should, barrel is a bit dirty but I dont see anything that cant be cleaned out reasonably well.
 
Depends on where it's sold. Last one I had at a gun show was not as elaborate as yours and sold for $125.00. So, without holding it (which is the best way to value something, holding it) somewhere around $ 150-$250. An antique shop might be able to get $250-$300. Just depends on the "marketplace".
 
Dolbledeuce I'm with you I love these little pocket/vest/muff guns and this one really caught my eye. I'm surprised how cheap they are and relatively uncommon in my searches.
Britsmoothy I think it is a screw barrel but not sure if I have the cajones to put it in a vise and find out for sure, it's harder than I can twist by hand.
 
Yes it's very similar in many ways to the leigi (?) Main difference is the barrel on this one is about 1/2" shorter and hammer is off center to the right. Heres my leigi kit I just finished too.
 

Attachments

  • 20200513_155333.jpg
    20200513_155333.jpg
    69.7 KB · Views: 81
  • 20200513_155339.jpg
    20200513_155339.jpg
    61.6 KB · Views: 83
Yes it's very similar in many ways to the leigi (?) Main difference is the barrel on this one is about 1/2" shorter and hammer is off center to the right. Heres my leigi kit I just finished too.


I had one of these Pedersoli's for about 45 minutes + 30 seconds. That was the length of the drive home from the gun store, and how long it was before my wife saw it.

"I was bad today," I told her.
"What did you buy," she asked.
I held up the derringer.
"Oh, that's adorable," she cooed.
Suddenly I was empty-handed, and she was polishing her new pistol with a soft cloth.
 
Same thing happened to me, I spent 2 days building a an authentic flap-type Luger holster for a Ruger Mark II, and when the sweetie saw it I got the old "Why thank you!" and Zip! gone like the wind. Never even got to wear it outside..... TinHorn
 

Latest posts

Back
Top