80. Auction

Percussion gun, full-stocked, with brass barrel bands, stamped number “55/86”, circa 1860

Full-stocked gun in musket form, calibre 14 mm. Round barrel, at the breech the fraction number “55/86” struck with number punches, above it scratched letters, faintly legible. Plain percussion lock with flat lock plate, stepped at the front, and rounded tail. Reddish-brown walnut full stock reaching nearly to the muzzle, the wrist chequered. Two flat brass barrel bands, brass trigger guard and butt plate, iron sling ring on the middle band, ramrod present. Condition commensurate with age, mechanism functional, the iron parts rubbed and stained, the breech markedly pitted. Please inspect. L. 122 cm.

Percussion ignition goes back to the Scottish clergyman Alexander John Forsyth, who had his percussion ignition system patented in 1807; the copper percussion cap, struck by the hammer, was patented by Joshua Shaw in 1822. Prussia and France converted their flintlock muskets to the new ignition from 1840; until the 1860s the full-stocked percussion gun with round barrel, barrel bands and iron ramrod remained the regulation arm of the infantry. The full stock with brass mounts and the flat, plain lock plate are the construction of these military guns in musket form; decommissioned regulation guns were reused as hunting arms in the 19th century. Muzzle-loader exempt from licensing under German law, sale to persons aged 18 and over only.