Cased Pair of Percussion Altered Pistols by John Richards of London

26 Bore (.56 caliber). 10.25" wedge retained octagonal barrels with hooked breeches. NSN. Browned faux Damascus patterned barrels, blued furniture, color casehardened locks and hammers, checkered walnut stocks with bag grips. Single shot percussion converted smoothbore muzzleloading pistols with bolted safety locks, adjustable triggers, platinum blow outs in the bolsters, fixed notch rear sights and dovetailed blade front sights. Pistol locks are engraved JNO RICHARDS forward of the hammers on the single screw locks and are decorated with light foliate scrolls and motifs at the front and rear edges of the lock plates. Barrels are engraved JNO RICHARDS - STRAND - LONDON -. Barrels with London gunmaker proofs underneath. The blued steel triggerguards are engraved with pineapple finals and have finger spur extensions. German silver shield shaped wrist escutcheons are present on both pistols and engraved with flowing script monograms. The pistols have steel tipped wooden ramrods that have female threads in their faces and male threads on the opposite ends. The rods are secured by a pair of blued ramrod pipes. The pistols are a contained in a relined period segmented oak casing with a brass handle in the lid, a John Richards paper label is inside the lid with his 54 Strand address. The case also has two lidded compartments. Included accessories are a number of cast lead balls, a cone wrench with removable cone prick in the handle, a breech scraper, a japanned Eley cap tin and an embossed brass powder flask with two ball storage compartments in the base. John Richards (I) was originally from Birmingham but moved to London to work as a gunmaker circa 1770s. He was free of the Gunmaker's Company by redemption in 1781 and worked at 114 Strand circa 1775-1777, 25 Strand 1778-1780, 4 Ball Alley Lombard Street circa 1781-1783, 54 Strand 1782-1808 and 55 Strand 1809-1821. Based upon the label address the pistols were made between 1782 and 1808. (Blackmore) The pistols were originally made in flint and expertly altered to percussion probably in the 1830s. A lovely pair of late 18th or early 19th century pistols that had longer working life due to the percussion conversion. {ANTIQUE}

This lot is located in Cincinnati.