A RARE 15 BORE BREECH-LOADING PERCUSSION BLUNDERBUSS-PISTOL ON THE CLANRICARDE SYSTEM BY JAMES WILKINSON & SON, PALL MALL, NO. 4375, CIRCA 1832 with twist sighted barrel with belled flattened oval muzzle engraved with foliage at the muzzle and breech, the latter inscribed 'Patent' within a scroll on the top, struck with London Gunmakers Company proof mark beneath and with the serial number, engraved action with sliding tip-up chamber struck with serial number and London Gunmakers Company view mark beneath, decorated with foliage, signed 'Wilkinson & Son, Pall Mall, London' on three scrolls (one top screw expertly replaced), fitted at the rear with an engraved pivoting block with engraved locking lever, at the front with a knurled thumb-plate, engraved tang incorporating the back-sight, signed scroll-engraved lock with bolt safety-catch, figured walnut half-stock, struck with the serial number behind the barrel bolt aperture on the inside, chequered butt widening towards the base, engraved iron mounts comprising trigger-guard with pineapple finial and fore-end cap, vacant silver escutcheon, and silver barrel bolt escutcheons, compete with its figured walnut shoulder stock, with engraved iron catch (the butt previously fitted with a suspension ring 40.6 cm; 16 in overall Provenance Dr William R. Funderburg, sold Sotheby's Parke Bernet, Los Angeles, 14/15 April 1975, lot 307. J. de Burgh, Marquis of Clanricarde, patented his system on 15 July 1831 under British patent number 6139. The chamber is designed to accept a paper cartridge containing twelve quarter-circle projectiles and a charge of powder with a detonating cap placed on the nipple. The inventor claimed that the projectiles 'will be so scattered laterally by the flattened bell shaped end of the barrel as to constitute a most formidable weapon of defence.' See Winnant 1956 pp. 257-8. The subsequent serial number to the present example, no. 4376, was sold by the maker to the Earl of Bradford and was subsequently in the Neal Collection, sold Christie's King Street 9 November 2000, lot 168. Another, formerly in the collection of Clay P. Bedford, was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, 1971, cat no. 132.
A RARE 15 BORE BREECH-LOADING PERCUSSION BLUNDERBUSS-PISTOL ON THE CLANRICARDE SYSTEM BY JAMES WILKINSON & SON, PALL MALL, NO. 4375, CIRCA 1832 with twist sighted barrel with belled flattened oval muzzle engraved with foliage at the muzzle and breech, the latter inscribed 'Patent' within a scroll on the top, struck with London Gunmakers Company proof mark beneath and with the serial number, engraved action with sliding tip-up chamber struck with serial number and London Gunmakers Company view mark beneath, decorated with foliage, signed 'Wilkinson & Son, Pall Mall, London' on three scrolls (one top screw expertly replaced), fitted at the rear with an engraved pivoting block with engraved locking lever, at the front with a knurled thumb-plate, engraved tang incorporating the back-sight, signed scroll-engraved lock with bolt safety-catch, figured walnut half-stock, struck with the serial number behind the barrel bolt aperture on the inside, chequered butt widening towards the base, engraved iron mounts comprising trigger-guard with pineapple finial and fore-end cap, vacant silver escutcheon, and silver barrel bolt escutcheons, compete with its figured walnut shoulder stock, with engraved iron catch (the butt previously fitted with a suspension ring 40.6 cm; 16 in overall Provenance Dr William R. Funderburg, sold Sotheby's Parke Bernet, Los Angeles, 14/15 April 1975, lot 307. J. de Burgh, Marquis of Clanricarde, patented his system on 15 July 1831 under British patent number 6139. The chamber is designed to accept a paper cartridge containing twelve quarter-circle projectiles and a charge of powder with a detonating cap placed on the nipple. The inventor claimed that the projectiles 'will be so scattered laterally by the flattened bell shaped end of the barrel as to constitute a most formidable weapon of defence.' See Winnant 1956 pp. 257-8. The subsequent serial number to the present example, no. 4376, was sold by the maker to the Earl of Bradford and was subsequently in the Neal Collection, sold Christie's King Street 9 November 2000, lot 168. Another, formerly in the collection of Clay P. Bedford, was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, 1971, cat no. 132.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
