I’m a bit stumped, and looking for some help on this small pistol.
I bought it at the KRA meeting (since I couldn’t afford much more
) and yes, it’s missing the lock.
The guy I bought it from is pretty confident the pistol was made in Baltimore, 1775/1790-ish. The wood looks like walnut and all the furniture is iron.
The barrel is a nice cannon barrel shape, and is about 4 ¼” long and .62 caliber smoothbore. There’s some sparse engraving on the barrel that outlines the rear section from the wedding rings back to the forward part of the tang.
The butt cap is held on with just a screw, and there is some simple silver wire inlay around the rear of the barrel tang.
The rear finale of the side plate looks to me like an acorn, as does the finale on the forward part of the trigger guard.
The ramrod entry pipe and the tiny ramrod pipe are made in one piece, with the center filed away to make them appear to be two separate pieces. I have another pistol, likely made in Lehigh Co. that has the same sort of ramrod pipe arrangement.
One of the pictures shows the markings on the bottom of the barrel. On one side, they’re obliterated and I can only make out a few letters. On the other side are the letters, stamped in capitals, FERT, and right below that, DOUBLE. At least that’s what it looks like, but none the less, doesn’t mean anything to me.
There’s no proof marks, no broad arrows, nothing to pin it to a euro country, so maybe it was made in Baltimore.
What do you guys think? American, foreign, does anything about it ring a bell with anyone?
Thanks for any suggestions!
And, If anyone has a flintlock, with a lock plate about 3 ¼” long I’d be interested in it!
John
