A Cased Pair of Small Flintlock Belt Pistols by Wogdon & Barton. 7 ¾” overall, 4” octagonal sighted 37 bore barrels with silver dovetail foresight, engraved ‘Wogdon & Barton’ in script on the top flat. The bottom flat of the barrel stamped with the London Gunmakers’ Company’s crowned ‘V’ view mark. Band of engraved beading at the breech & false breech with band of engraving, ‘V’ rear sight, tang with border line & foliate engraving. Flat, stepped, bolted, border line engraved lock, narrow safety catch, engraved ‘Wogdon & Barton’ in script beneath the pan. Double border line engraved swan neck cock with, engraved cock retaining screw. Frizzen spring with teardrop. Figured walnut full stock, rounded butt with horn forend. Lozenge shaped Silver escutcheons engraved with an Earls Coronet above an armoured arm holding a dagger. Steel mounts comprising trigger guard, trigger plate with shell finial, plain trigger guard tang, collared ramrod pipe with spring, belt hooks, single barrel bolt, two engraved side nails & side nail cups. Steel brass tipped ramrods. In a contemporary green baize lined fitted oak case, the lid with inset carrying handle. With some accessories including a brass coffin shaped powder flask with powder measure top, loading rod, turn screw & a bullet mould. ‘Wilson Gun and Pistol Warehouse’ label in the lid
Circa 1795.
Plain but well made pistols in good condition, some original finish remaining, some moth damage to case lining.
Crest of Wilbraham Tollemache, 6th Earl of Dysart, (21 October 1739 – 9 March 1821) he was a British military officer, politician and peer who sat in the House of Commons from 1771 to 1784.Tollemache was a younger son of Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart. He originally served in the Royal Navy, and then in the British Army, retiring in 1775 as a major in the 6th Regiment of Foot. He first entered the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Northampton in 1771. On 4 February 1773, he married Anna Maria Lewis, but had no children. He continued to sit for Northampton until 1780, and then. represented Liskeard until 1784. He was High Sheriff of Cheshire in 1785, and later High Steward of Ipswich, like his elder brother
Robert Wogdon was apprenticed to Edward Newton of Grantham, Lincolnshire in 1748. He is recorded as 'Gunmaker, at Mr. Maw's Haberdasher, Cockspur St., Charing Cross' in 1764. He carried on his business in Haymarket from 1774 until his retirement in 1802. From 1795 he was in partnership with John Barton who carried on the business following Wogdon's retirement.
John Barton Gunmaker (formerly Wogdon & Barton) 14 Haymarket, 1803-16; 5 St. James’s St., Haymarket, 1816-19. Howard L. Blackmore (1986) Gunmakers Of London, 1350-1850.
See John O’Sullivan & De Witt Bailey, ‘Robert Wogdon & Barton, London Gunmakers 1764-1819’, 2019. Pistol illustrated Page 208.
From The Peter Frazer Collection