njaw Posted May 10, 2011 Posted May 10, 2011 Hi all I am new to this excellent site and this is my first post! I have been collecting and researching antique firearms for a few years now and have slowly built up a modest collection (of which I will post in the gallery section). My most recent acquisition is this rather large police pistol. It is of 12 bore and sports a captive ramrod. Apart from Birmingham proofs, there are no other markings. It does not appear to have had much use and is in excellent condition. It came with a rather thread bare piece of parchment stating that it belonged to a police constable of the Merthyr Tydfil police force, South Wales. Interesting stuff! http://img36.imagesh...p?id=man1lr.jpg kind regards Nick
Brian Wolfe Posted May 11, 2011 Posted May 11, 2011 Welcome to the forum and a great item for your first post. An excellent find Nick, thanks for posting it. Regards Brian
Mervyn Mitton Posted May 11, 2011 Posted May 11, 2011 Hello, Nick - and as Brian has said - welcome to GMIC. Very nice to see a pistol that can be linked to a Police Force - most of the early ones were borrowed from the military. A named one - or , with some written proof - is a rare item. The 'Manstopper' - so named for it's tremendous stopping power with a large ball and a big gunpowder charge - was popular with early Police - also, Customs, Prisons - and the Navy also favoured them. One of it's advantages was that it was big enough to reverse and use as a club in an emergency. I will be posting in a few days - under Firearms - a few early pistols from my remaining collection. One of them - also from Birmingham is similar to yours - perhaps a little smaller in bore. We will look forward to seeing other weapons from your collection on the Firearms section. Merthyr Tydfil seems to have been established in the 1840's - this would have been under the Permissive Act of 1838. This ties in nicely with the percussion cap action.
njaw Posted May 11, 2011 Author Posted May 11, 2011 Thank you chaps. It's always nice to share our hobbies. I have created a thread in the firearms section outlining my collection. Time to spend a couple more hours going through this site! kind regards Nick
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