Need help Identifying this pistol.

[Bull1315]

Got an old flintlock in my shop and im trying to get a line on maybe who built it. 69 caliber, smooth bore with a "safety" slide. Only marks are "Thomas" on yhe sidelock, letters "TP" under the barrel  and two proofmarks on the top of the barrel. Crown and crossed sabres maybe?
 I was told this is the place for answers.
Thanks for any help or info.

[JV Puleo]

It could be Henry Thomas, a Birmingham gunmaker whose dates are appropriate. The real question in my mind are those proof marks which are supposed to be Tower Private Proofs but they don't look right. They look, in fact, like "fake" Tower proofs or that they were stamped with the dies sold by a well know supplier of black powder parts. The pistol looks good but the proofs are highly questionable. I suspect...and this is a guess, that's a better quality pistol made for export. Does it have a known provenance?

[smart dog]

Hi,
As Joe wrote, it could have been made by Henry Thomas in Birmingham during the first decade of the 19th century. The barrel may be by Thomas Portlock, a Birmingham barrel maker during the same period.  I don't agree that the proof marks were faked using the modern stamps available.  The marks would be much shallower and without flat bottoms.  They may be fake but done with some other style stamp. 

dave

[Bull1315]

I need to check with the owner to see if any kind of provenance was provided that he hasnt told me about. He had told me he bought it from an estate sale. He thought it was in that family for quite a while and he figured it was a "trade" gun made in the early 1800's.  Looks pretty "fancy" for any kind of trade gun i think. The owner is a collector of early american antiques specifically but is not a gun guy.
I will check with him tomorrow for some more background.
Thanks for the input.

[JV Puleo]

I still don't think the proofs look right but they could be as old as the pistol. Keep in mind that there was no legal requirement for proof on export guns. Proof only applied to guns sold in England. The law wasn't even extended to Scotland and Ireland until well after the flintlock period. As to the quality (which appears to be quite good) not all "trade" i.e. export pistols were of low quality. Most were but there was always a demand for better quality arms. Unfortunately the export licenses don't differentiate so the exact percentage that fall into that category isn't calculable.