While I am on a roll I decided to share the favourite of my antique arms collection. They were bought at a Melbourne arms fair over thirty years ago. I could only afford them after selling off other items I loved, but I have never regretted it.
We are looking at a pair of transitional flintlock duelling pistols by one of the most famous of the English makers, Robert Wogdon. They are called transitional because they retain the old style holster pistol butts, while having all the features of the duelling pistols of the 1770s.
Wogdon's pistols were known for being functional and very accurate, rather than decorative. These are one of his exceptions to that rule, being silver mounted (hallmarked for 1776) with gold lined pans, vents and other bits.
The heavy silver butt plate reminds me of my face in the rear vision mirror after being cutoff by some freeway clown zipping across lanes at high speed:
For the shooters amongst you, the balance of these pistols is superb. While keeping my eyes closed I can bring one up to a firing position, open my eyes, and find the sights exactly aligned. Their bore is the most common duelling .53 calibre, which was a smaller bore than military and horse pistols. These pistols were set to be on target at 12 paces, the standard duelling distance in those days. Duellers were not allowed to be rifled, but the best smoothbore pistols would reliably put shots into a playing card at twelve paces.
In the 1770s many duelling pairs were sold without a case, but by 1780 a mahogany case was standard, This pair did not have a case, but I was lucky to find one made during the 1780s of flame mahogany on oak that they and the contemporary accessories fitted into nicely.
This pair appeared in Bonham's publication
Robert Wogdon, by John O'Sullivan and de Witt Bailey in 2019. Bonham's also put three silver mounted pairs on the back of the dust jacket - two pairs were owned by the Queen, and the third was this pair. I felt my sacrifice of thirty years earlier was worth it.
Our American friends on OF might be interested to know that pistols by Wogdon were used in the 1804 duel when Vice President Aaron Burr fatally wounded General Alexander Hamilton.
