A Very Fine Cased Pair of Joseph Manton Flintlock Duelling Pistols. 15 ¾” overall, 10” octagonal 34 bore barrels, rectangular platinum lined maker’s stamp ‘Joseph Manton Patent’ platinum line & platinum lined touch hole, finely engraved tang incorporating a large rear sight decorated with foliage, blade fore sight. Flat oak leaf border engraved locks decorated with a starburst behind the rainproof pan & a musical trophy on the tail, engraved ‘Joseph Manton London’ safety slide, foliate engraved swan necked cock, one steel engraved ‘Joseph Manton Patent’ & numbered ‘67’the other plain, with roller bearing on the toe of the frizzens. Walnut figured half stocks with horn fore-end cap & open chequered rounded butt, border engraved steel mounts decorated with martial trophies & comprising butt cap, serial numbered ‘5866’ trigger guards, trigger plate with pineapple finial, turned rear ramrod pipe, vacant silver wrist escutcheon & barrel bolt escutcheons, original horn tipped ramrods. In their original lined and fitted mahogany case with accessories including brass mounted three way red leather covered powder flask, loading rod, mallet head bullet mould, pan brush, turnscrew, flint wallet, bullets & patches. The interior of the lid with maker’s ‘Davis Street Berkley Square’ trade label (used from 1810-19) with owner’s name ‘Lord Gwydyer’ in Indian ink. The exterior with circular vacant brass escutcheon centred on a flush fitting brass carrying handle.
Number 5866 made in 1812.
In very fine condition with nearly all their original finish. Unmarked stocks. Both frizzens replaced in their working life. I normally remove locks and barrels to inspect condition, these are too fine to risk marking the stocks. Pistols of the highest quality by the very finest English gun maker.
See ‘The Mantons 1782-1878’ D.H.L.Black plates 84 for similar casing and plate 129 for the label.
Joseph Manton, Brother of John. Born 1766. Served as apprentice to his brother. His new method of rifling cannon and loading (with cup wads) tried but not adopted by Ordnance, 1790. Gunmaker, 25 Davies St., 1793-1807; 24-5 Davies St., 1808-10; 27 Davies St., 1811-18; 11 Hanover Sq., 1819-26; 315 Oxford St., 1820-6. Two workshops at 25 St. Davids St., Bankrupt, 1826. New business, Marylebone Park House, New Rd., 1827-8. Imprisoned for debt, 1828-9. Gunmaker to East India Co., 1796-9. Gunmaker-in-Ordinary to George IV, 1820.
Col.Peter Hawker called him: ‘The greatest artist in fire-arms that ever the world produced’
Peter Burrell, 1st Baron Gwydyr PC (16 June 1754 – 29 June 1820) featured in English politics at the end of the 18th century, but he was best known for his involvement in cricket, particularly his part in the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club in 1787.
He was the son of Peter Burrell and educated at Eton College and St John's College, Cambridge. He was elected Member of Parliament for Haslemere from 1776 to 1780 and for Boston from 1782 to 1796. He married in 1779, Lady Priscilla Barbara Elizabeth Bertie, the daughter of Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven. She succeeded to a large part of the Ancaster estates in 1779, to the barony of Willoughby of Eresby in 1780 and to the hereditary office of Lord Great Chamberlain. Burrell was knighted in 1781 and became her deputy. The highlight of his career was his role as Deputy Lord Great Chamberlain, jure uxoris, in the famous trial of Warren Hastings. (Hastings had been the first Governor General of India from 1773 to 1786, but in 1787 he was impeached and subsequently tried for corruption, but was acquitted in 1795).
He succeeded his father in 1775 and his great-uncle, Sir Merrik Burrell, as 2nd Baronet in 1787. He was created Baron Gwydir on 16 June 1796. A keen amateur cricketer, Burrell has been called the third most influential member of the White Conduit Club and of the early MCC, after George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea and Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond. He played in seven matches which have been awarded first-class cricket status between 1787 and 1790. In a non-first-class match for White Conduit Club against the Gentlemen of Kent at White Conduit Fields in 1785 he scored 97 runs in an innings. He died in 1820. With Priscilla Bertie he had lived at Langley Park, Beckenham and had three sons and a daughter. He was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son, Peter Robert Drummond-Burrell, 2nd Baron Gwydyr, 22nd Baron Willoughby de Eresby.
Ex Peter Finer