I spent yesterday repairing the above flintlock pistol. It was made in London, circa 1780, and is one of the earliest pistols made specifically for duelling purposes. Being English it has clean unfussy lines, and very little decoration. Colonel Peter Hawker said in his 'Instructions to Young Sportsmen' of 1807 :- "The French pieces are tinselled off very pretty, but ours do the more execution." His opinion was, perhaps, a shade biased, but I couldn't better it as a comparison of French/English weaponry. The above piece is not of great value, having had two centuries of use. It is very worn and has had a good deal of repair. BUT it is now in good working order; and its owner was pleased to have it returned to this condition. It has always had a pure beauty of line, it is now once again a viciously effective weapon. Or would be if it were not against the law to use it. The state of the law at present is that 'bone fide antique firearms may be kept for ornament or curiosity' but may not be used. Still, it gave me a very satisfying day's work, and its owner a good deal of pleasure.
Must record an incident this morning. When we were breakfasting Ann said, "What's that bird on the honeysuckle ?" It had its back to us, and I realised that we were watching a very well coloured gold crested wren. It buzzed the five goldfinches around the bird table, which flew away in terror. As I thought about getting the camera it flew away. Ann then said "it had black markings around the gold crest". So we looked it up, and I'm about ninety percent convinced (more than that if I'm honest) that what we'd seen was, in fact, a fire crest. We've been very privileged.
Good night all.
7 comments:
Handsome little perisher, Mike. While quite partial to tinsel and glitter in my younger days, I much prefer good clean steel nowadays. I suppose the length of the barrel is to optimize the accuracy of the piece. But I'd need to practice a good deal to build up my wrist strength to prevent the muzzle from drooping before I could risk being offensive to such as are likely to demand 'satisfaction'.
Apart from that I prefer not to rise before dawn in anticipation of an early conclusion.
Hello Crowbard.It had a ten inch barrel, but was not in the least muzzle heavy. The long curving butt would have kept the hand well back from the breech, so that any kick would be straight back into the palm of the hand and thus minimise any muzzle lift on discharge.
My good friend Sue has just emailed me to say that she and David think that on a balance of probabilities the bird we saw was most likely to have been a firecrest. It was a lovely and unusual little bird. Thank you Sue and David.
You have done a super job on the pistol. I agree with UC much prefer the simple lines of the english stuff - any stuff !!
Hope you are both well and warm - it has been perishing here this week. We are all fine, pretty much back to normal after a couple of flu bouts. Mike and I saw 'The Kings Speech' - new film earlier in the week and can thoroughly recommend it if you get the chance to catch a matinee performance.
Good luck with the crossword tomorrow - we have REALLY struggled with it the last few weeks.
much love
Stig
x
Thank you Stig. Yes I was pleased with the dueller. We half thought about popping into Ipswich to see The King's Speech. Yours is the second recommendation we've had to see it. I agree the last two Telegraph Prize Crosswords have been stinkers. I finished them both, but I had to swap my last clue with Sheila for two or three she hadn't done.
Does the law state that they are not to be used or not to be fired? Because as it's a duelling pistol you'd only be using it properly if you were in a duel, which would be a bit daft and most likely illegal anyway, but could you claim you were just firing it and not as such using it?
thythonI'm not sure of the answer to that one Nea. 'Used' I think. Duelling has been illegal since the late 18th century. Even 'used' leaves it as a bit of a grey area since it could be fired with a heavy wad, and no ball, and I'm not sure that this would constitute 'use'. Best thing would be to leave it on the wall, and not take chances, I suppose.
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