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ID on flintlock blunderbuss

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JolleyRoger

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Good day folks, I have the opportunity to buy this blunderbuss, but have no idea wrt its origin. The seller got it from his old neighbor and believes it to be a Royal Navy issue, i'm a bit skeptical. To me the screws doesn't look to be from the correct period, wood seems to have been sanded down at some stage and some 'embellishments' added (crown and scull?) The seller don't have an asking price, so is open to offers, I don't want to give him a lowball offer, but also don't want to buy a lemon.

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Here’s my best guess, it reports to be English, but it is a very poor replica or attempt at it.

The hardware like the trigger guard and especially the finals is very crude, as is the cock. An English lock would be marked regardless of make. The ‘GR’ and ‘London’ markings are also crude. England did a lot … but crude guns? Never …

The stock actually looks pretty good in overall design, egf., shape of the nose on the comb, the full baluster carried down from the wrist, etc., … at least until someone added weird embellishments that to me don’t reflect a real British piece. But of course @dave_person is one of, if not the English arms expert here.

I believe it is most likely one of those Victorian era copies, where it was all the vogue to have the man of the house’s smoking room - aka ‘Man Cave’ - decorated with arms reflecting different eras. Sometimes parts would be real or all the parts would be real, or might just have a plain tube barrel - not a real barrel. But it would be a miss-mash put together assortment to look like something that it really wasn’t in reality, aka as in a real arm from the real historical period.

It might shoot, but I’d for darn sure would pull the barrel to see if real, or see if any markings on the bottom and would pull the breech plug to verify both its construction and integrity and then I’d definitely proof it.

Or … buy it cheap and just hang it on the wall.
 

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