Thinking of selling flintlock pistols - advice welcome

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trilobite

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Hello, all -

I have two brass flintlock pistols that have been sitting in the basement for years, and I'm curious to know what they might be worth.

Handling them, I think they were designed as basic self-defence weapons - you can't sight along the barrels. There is a screw missing from both of them, one has some damage to the wood, and the lock is broken on one of them (hammer swings loosely).

I think late 18thC-early 19thC. Marked as made in London. Any help appreciated. Links to pictures follow

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-HW2VE7mhjeTHRhTHN6MzcxeEU/view

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-HW2VE7mhjeeUJjNkVaM3NKbUU/view


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-HW2VE7mhjeZWkwWXhrakJOV3c/view
 
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I would agree ca1800, give or take. They do need some skilled TLC.
As is, $250 - $300 each?
 
Highly unlikely those are dueling pistols, especially since they're box locks. It was very common for inexpensive box lock pocket pistols to be sold in pairs.

Just because they come in pairs doesn't mean they are specifically made for dueling, as it was common to sell cased pairs of pistols for protection, target shooting and military use as well.
 
@Edenchef

I don't think they're dueling pistols - as I said, you can't really sight along them. I think they were inexpensive self-defence weapons. If I was unfortunate enough to be caught up in a duel, I think I'd want something much higher-quality.

But yes, they're identical. My assumption is that in the muzzleloading era the only way you could provide for multiple shots in an emergency was to bring along multiple firearms, hence the pair.

There seems to be a device behind the lock to hold it on the half-#### - not sure how well it would have worked in practice.
 
They are not dueling pistols. British dueling pistols were a very specific type of pistols. This pair was intended for self defence at close range.
They were fitted with a sliding safety catch behind the ####, which could be used to lock the #### at half ####, and probably lock the frizzen closed (can't tell from the photos). This would allow them to be carried loaded with relative safety, and without the risk of having a frizzen knocked open, spilling the priming powder. Note the lug on the bottom of each barrel. This was to engage a spanner, allowing the barrel to be turned off, so that the pistol could be loaded without a rammer, using a ball slightly over bore diameter.
 
Definitely screw barrel type. Condition as you 've described approx 300- each. If they were in the original box with appropriate tools and good condition then we get to serious money -say, 1800- plus depending on the name of maker. Ketland made a lot of brass barrel pistols but not aware of any box locks from them. Length of barrels on these could put them in Boot pistol category and as such slightly more desireable.
 
What would the advantage be to being able to unscrew the barrel - using a specialized tool designed for the purpose - over just using a ramrod?

(Thanks for pointing this feature out - I never knew what that little tab was for.)
 
Oversized ball gave better gas seal. Patched round balls were used in rifles. Undersized ball with wadding would not shoot as well as the breech loaded oversized one.
 
Plus it was very quick loading. No powder measure as the space below the ball held the right amount-approx 15 grains depending on caliber. Ball placed on top and barrel re-threaded about 4 turns and ready to go- either powder in pan or cap on caplock.
 
I also suspect that most of the time the spanner was not used - turn the barrel on hand tight. The spanner was most likely used to break the barrel loose if it was fouled, etc.

There were also rifled pistols and carbines which used turn off barrels. Solved the problem of how to get the ball to engage the rifling.
 
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