A Rare Cased Pair of V Pan Flintlock Duelling Pistols by John Manton & Son. 15 ½” overall, 10” sighted browned Damascus octagonal poly grooved rifled 40 bore barrels, case colour hardened platinum lined breeches decorated with scrolling foliage, engraved on the top flat ‘John Manton & Son Dover Street’, on under side London Proofs & (WF) William Fullerd barrelsmith’s mark, numbered 9737. Flat border & scroll engraved detented bolted locks signed ‘JNO MANTON & SON PATENT’. Self-priming V-shaped rainproof pans, roller frizzens, numbered 9737 on top edge of the lock plates, border engraved steels marked ‘JNO MANTON & SON PATENT’, platinum lined touch holes, French cocks, half stocked with chequered wooden grips, border & scroll engraved steel mounts, the trigger guard tangs with the serial no. 9737, pineapple finials, engraved butt caps, horn fore ends brass topped wooden ramrods. In their original green baize lined mahogany case, the lid with a H under an Earls Coronet, complete with tortoiseshell leather lacquered three-way flask, oil bottle, starting mallet/cleaning rod, bow tie turnscrews, bullet mould, patch tin & powder measure, lidded compartments with bone lifters & bone keyhole escutcheon, the lid with maker's trade label with inked owner's name ‘Captain Hope Coldstm. Guards’.
Very high quality pistols in very good condition, good re-brown to barrels, case colour to the locks & blueing to the mounts. Self-primming V pan locks are the high water mark of the flintlock ignition, most often seen on the very best sporting guns much more rarely on duelling pistols.
Serial no. 9737 for 1827.
See ‘The Mantons 1782-1878’ by D. Back, page 54 & ‘The Manton Supplement’ by Neal & Back.
Captain James Hope served in the Coldstream Guards from 1824 to 1844 when he retired as Lieutenant Colonel, he was the second son of General Sir John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun, & brother of the 5th Earl John Hope.