Help with a percussion pistol

[tiger13]

I picked up a very unusual percussion pistol over the weekend, the guy I bought it from, hated to sell it, but having been out of work, he was in dire straights I could see how much it hurt him to sell a family relic. All that he knew was as the story was told to him was, this pistol was "made" on board a ship sometime during the 1860's in the crossings from England by a relative.That was all he knew. As for the pistol itself, there is absolutely no markings on this at all, none, nothing on the barrel, which starts out as octagon and turns to a round, the bore measures out at .58 caliber it is smooth bore the stock is cracked in several places, and it is very gracefully done for being such a large caliber, the pistol measures 18 1/2 inches overall in length. The lock has no marks on it, the springs are hand made as you can see the file marks, but no ID marks, and I have never seen a lock like this before! Has anyone seen anything like this before? any ideas? value? I am going to try to post pictures if I cant could any one volunteer to receive some in an email to post on here for me? thanks guys.
Rusty

 

[Norinco]

well, it looks better made than some of the stuff in the Khyber Pass.

 

[wulf]

Sure looks like a Miquelet style...Just a guess..

 

[gordy]

I don"t know ? but the hammer looks to have been a stamping from flat metal ? The photos don"t show well on my pc . :idunno:

 

[Zonie]

The lock is a form of the Miquelet type.

This lock system is typified by having an external mainspring and often two separate sears which pass thru the lockplate to engage the hammer.
One sear serves as a half-cock while the other serves as the full-cock.

Locks of this type were popular in all areas of the Mediterranean from Spain to Egypt as well as further East.

That doesn't necessarily say the story about the gun being made on a trip from England to the U.S. couldn't happen because the parts could have been purchased from many different places in Europe or in the Mediterranean before the voyage began.

Actually, the idea of building a pistol on a voyage like that sounds like a good idea.
After all, the pool, shuffle board courts and sauna on those old ships often weren't the best and the trip could take several months.

As for the guns value I don't have the foggiest idea.
It is not something that most collectors would be anxious to have but it is an interesting pistol.

 

[tiger13]

Zonie you seemed to have hit the nail on the head with your description, there are to pieces that come thru the lock plate that hold the hammer, one at half cock and one at full cock. For being a hand made throw together pistol, this gun is very well balanced and graceful to hold, I am going to check it over very well and possibly try to shoot it with a very light load just to see how she does.
Thanks to all for your help

 

[curator]

You have Spanish Miquelet percussion pistol circa 1850. It may have been converted from flintlock to percussion if the lock plate is filled under the percussion bolster.There are probably proof marks on the underside of the barrel. The miquelet system is actually quite rugged and Spanish armsmakers clung to their traditional style horizontal sear called "La mode" well into the late nineteenth century because they belived it made the stock less likely to break. Keeping most of the moving parts on the outside made their guns easier to clean in the field.

 

[tiger13]

It does seem to show signs of having been converted from flintlock over to a percussion lock, I guess there will just be no real way of ever knowing for sure of how old this gun is for sure, but it will preserved to help keep our the tradition alive.

 

[curator]

The old customs house museum in Key West has a short barreled "blunderbus" with a lock nearly identical to your pistol. It may also have been made originally in percussion using a lock from an earlier piece.The percussion bolster is also very similar to the Key West gun.