Can anyone identify this makers/merchants name?

[Dave Fox]

Right! Here's an early 18th Century British pistol in my accumulation without the supporting arm (bridle) giving an extra pivot point to support the frizzen ("battery" or, confusingly, "hammer" in contemporary 18th Century usage). The screw goes directly into the frizzen, is only supported by the lock plate, putting that screw under a deal of eccentric stress.

 

[Rudyard]

Stress in theory but properly done there fine , in fact properly done the interior bridle isn't the horror some consider it any more than a brass lockplate they hold up fine takes a lot of shooting to wear them out . being into archaic sorts I notice this sort of stuff .
Regards Rudyard

 

[Larks]

Thankyou Bob, that’s a great explanation and I really appreciate you taking the effort to explain it so well.

I’ve had another look at that frizzen screw as well as the frizzen spring screw under a magnifying glass and light and the peening is actually very slight. The screw edge is still visible around most of the end so it’s difficult to say whether they’ve possibly been very slightly peened to stop them backing out or whether it may just be wear and tear from being knocked and scraped over time, sort of naturally peening them. I’m inclined to feel that the latter is most likely.

 

[Larks]

Right! Here's an early 18th Century British pistol in my accumulation without the supporting arm (bridle) giving an extra pivot point to support the frizzen ("battery" or, confusingly, "hammer" in contemporary 18th Century usage). The screw goes directly into the frizzen, is only supported by the lock plate, putting that screw under a deal of eccentric stress.

Thanks Dave, that helps even more. Do you have any idea when this style of lock started to change to include the bridle? I imagine in practice that it would have been over a certain period of time as manufacturers adopted the concept but could it have perhaps been to meet the standards of a government military contract requirement for a certain pattern at some stage? I’m imagining someone coming up with a design/pattern to resolve some issue in the field similar to when cavalry sword patterns were revised.

 

[Dave Fox]

Thanks Dave, that helps even more. Do you have any idea when this style of lock started to change to include the bridle? I imagine in practice that it would have been over a certain period of time as manufacturers adopted the concept but could it have perhaps been to meet the standards of a government military contract requirement for a certain pattern at some stage? I’m imagining someone coming up with a design/pattern to resolve some issue in the field similar to when cavalry sword patterns were revised.

With the caviat that I'm no expert, I'll wade into your question, nonetheless, with Mark Twain's assurance of a Christian holding four aces. I own a 1719 Tower Colonel's musket, a last survivor manufactured to ship a plug bayonet. Its lock lacks a frizzen bridle as you can see from the photo. The subsequent model of British martial arm, (first to be known as the Brown Bess) which evolved from this piece and continental arms also lacked the bridle, as this 1729 Brown Bess lock illustrated demonstrates. The next significant improvement to the Land Pattern Brown Bess, that of 1740, added a bridle which was standard from then on for the next nearly 100 years. The book 'Bess photographs are from page 17 of Goldstein & Mowbray's superb book "The Brown Bess". So, at least as far as the British were concerned, a firzzen bridle was first permanently affixed to its regulation musket locks with the improvement of 1740. One suspects some civilian gunmakers led the way whilst others lagged behind.

 

[Notchy Bob]

With the caviat that I'm no expert, I'll wade into your question, nonetheless, with Mark Twain's assurance of a Christian holding four aces. I own a 1719 Tower Colonel's musket, a last survivor manufactured to ship a plug bayonet. Its lock lacks a frizzen bridle as you can see from the photo. The subsequent model of British martial arm, (first to be known as the Brown Bess) which evolved from this piece and continental arms also lacked the bridle, as this 1729 Brown Bess lock illustrated demonstrates. The next significant improvement to the Land Pattern Brown Bess, that of 1740, added a bridle which was standard from then on for the next nearly 100 years. The book 'Bess photographs are from page 17 of Goldstein@ & Mowbray's superb book "The Brown Bess". So, at least as far as the British were concerned, a firzzen bridle was first permanently affixed to its regulation musket locks with the improvement of 1740. One suspects some civilian gunmakers led the way whilst others lagged behind.

Great post, @Dave Fox !

Notchy Bob

 

[Larks]

With the caviat that I'm no expert, I'll wade into your question, nonetheless, with Mark Twain's assurance of a Christian holding four aces. I own a 1719 Tower Colonel's musket, a last survivor manufactured to ship a plug bayonet. Its lock lacks a frizzen bridle as you can see from the photo. The subsequent model of British martial arm, (first to be known as the Brown Bess) which evolved from this piece and continental arms also lacked the bridle, as this 1729 Brown Bess lock illustrated demonstrates. The next significant improvement to the Land Pattern Brown Bess, that of 1740, added a bridle which was standard from then on for the next nearly 100 years. The book 'Bess photographs are from page 17 of Goldstein & Mowbray's superb book "The Brown Bess". So, at least as far as the British were concerned, a firzzen bridle was first permanently affixed to its regulation musket locks with the improvement of 1740. One suspects some civilian gunmakers led the way whilst others lagged behind.

Thankyou yet again Dave - no expert you say but that is just the sort of information that I am interested in. I don’t have any sort of library on flintlocks - yet - so I’m sincerely appreciative of the effort taken to respond, to share your knowledge and to post photos of examples. I find this side of collecting - researching and understanding the firearms - incredibly interesting and the more I learn the more fascinated I am with this era, the weapons of the era and the people who both produced and used them.

 

[Dave Fox]

Thankyou yet again Dave - no expert you say but that is just the sort of information that I am interested in. I don’t have any sort of library on flintlocks - yet - so I’m sincerely appreciative of the effort taken to respond, to share your knowledge and to post photos of examples. I find this side of collecting - researching and understanding the firearms - incredibly interesting and the more I learn the more fascinated I am with this era, the weapons of the era and the people who both produced and used them.

Thankyou yet again Dave - no expert you say but that is just the sort of information that I am interested in. I don’t have any sort of library on flintlocks - yet - so I’m sincerely appreciative of the effort taken to respond, to share your knowledge and to post photos of examples. I find this side of collecting - researching and understanding the firearms - incredibly interesting and the more I learn the more fascinated I am with this era, the weapons of the era and the people who both produced and used them.

No comfort known to man as is a 60 year accumulation of a research library...this is part of mine, praise be.