A large 19th century flintlock pistol

[colin henshaw]

Originally Posted by M ELEY

Here is an overly large flintlock pistol made by ELG in Belgium. This type gun was popular with sailors and is listed in multiple publications as such. It has a large bore barrel and a lanyard wing at the butt. This feature allowed a sailor to attach a cord to his wrist so as not to lose it in the heart of battle on a crowded deck. I believe the wood is walnut? The 'ELG' mark is an early form pre-dating 1830 if I recall. There is a V under a crown mark and an indecipherable stamp to the barrel as well. Note the lack of ramrod, which was deemed pointless as no reloading in the melee of a boarding.
One question I have is whether there is any truth that these pistols were also used by British cavalry in Africa?? It is close to the size of their so-called howdah pistols. Horsemen would also have little opportunity to reload and not need a ramrod.

Hi Mark

An interesting pistol topic, thanks for posting. Certainly your reasons for a lack of a ramrod make sense and are plausible. I can't comment about British Cavalry of the period, but certainly Russian Cavalry made use of flintlock pistols without attached ramrods. Here is an image of the Russian 12 bore M1809 flintlock cavalry pistol.

Regarding pistols in Africa (slightly off-topic) I can state that archaic flintlock pistols were used by Arab slavers/traders and their African allies in the latter half of the 19th century in Central and Eastern Africa. But whether these were with or without ramrods ... who knows ? Probably they used just whatever they could get. There is also evidence for old flintlock pistols being used by the Mahdists in the Sudan in the late 19th Century.

References :
The Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium
"Armies of the 19th Century, Central Africa" by Chris Peers
The Powell-Cotton Museum, Birchington, Kent