Sgt Grant

Hi. Its a lovely little pistol. I do not think its English though....The banding on the barrels and the filigree work are definitely Spanish in origin. The lions head on the butt altho seen on some English pistols doesnt have an English look!! The main identifier is the banding on the barrell. I have never seen any English or Irish pistol with this on. Do you think its an earlier pistol thats been converted from Flint to percussion?

Hi All Ive joined this here forum just to find out about Early Peelers......fantastic picture by the way! The armband was used when the officer was on duty. The main reason for this is that they had to wear their uniform at all times. This was to stop them mixing with the criminal fraternity...as many of them did. They had to seek permission to marry and also permission to dine out with certain persons. all this for a £1 a week and 1 weeks unpaid holiday a year and 2 months out of 3 on night shift. They had 12 hour shifts and had to walk their beat at 2.5mph. They were not to stop and talk to maids or any other person unless it was in the course of their duties and they were not of course allowed to go into a public house. So many early Peelers were dismissed for this that the tailors complained about having to keep altering the uniforms!!! Early duty armbands had three horizontal blue stripes.