Tower Pistol Identification
Hello,
I'm new to the forum and have come across a few handguns in helping to sort through a family home. I'm not a gun expert, though learning as a result of this. One handgun in particular appears to be an antique tower pistol. I don't yet have photos posted. What should I be looking for in markings or other qualities to understand whether it is authentic, and if so, the age? In working with my father to understand the item, here is what I know at this point:
Appears to be 80 caliber
It's a Flint Lock to Percussion conversion
It's engraved with something that looks like a name in a script. Using the "_" character for letters I can't make out "F,G,orJ_orc_cia" and underneath very difficult to read.
The end where the bullet comes out (yes laugh) is engraved with two letters. They are either greek Lambda and Rho (upside down V and a P) or they are something else entirely.
Enclosed in a rectangle, in small capital letters is an "MB" marking on the left side.
I would appreciate any advice on what else I should be looking for, and resources I could tap into to better understand this piece.
Thanks!
I'm new to the forum and have come across a few handguns in helping to sort through a family home. I'm not a gun expert, though learning as a result of this. One handgun in particular appears to be an antique tower pistol. I don't yet have photos posted. What should I be looking for in markings or other qualities to understand whether it is authentic, and if so, the age? In working with my father to understand the item, here is what I know at this point:
Appears to be 80 caliber
It's a Flint Lock to Percussion conversion
It's engraved with something that looks like a name in a script. Using the "_" character for letters I can't make out "F,G,orJ_orc_cia" and underneath very difficult to read.
The end where the bullet comes out (yes laugh) is engraved with two letters. They are either greek Lambda and Rho (upside down V and a P) or they are something else entirely.
Enclosed in a rectangle, in small capital letters is an "MB" marking on the left side.
I would appreciate any advice on what else I should be looking for, and resources I could tap into to better understand this piece.
Thanks!
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It would be best if you could post quality photos of the pistol. Here is a link to instructions for posting photos in the forum.
http://forums.gunbroker.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2592940 -
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It appears to have been originally a French flintlock Cavalry pistol dating to the early years of the 19th Century, during the rein of Napoleon. They used Roman Numerals to designate their different models, dating to when they overthrew the King in 1791. I believe this one would be a Model XIII. 0 -
Rufe may be on target. If not, he is pretty close. I tried to find it in R.E. Brooker's "Armes de Poing Militaires Francaises". Pages of pix of the many variations of the An XIII pistol. I found several similar but not the same, altho there may have been detail variations within the model. The XIII type started in late flint period and contiued well into the percs. In addition to the Original French, this pistol was widely copied by others, Italy, Austria, etc. French late 1700s military arms design was copied in most of Europe, including early U.S. military 0
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