Pistol, pocket pistol

This flintlock pocket pistol is of the box-lock type that appeared on the London market towards the middle of the eighteenth century. All firearms manufactured in London at this time had to be marked to show that they had been viewed and 'proofed' (test-fired) by the Gunmakers' Company.

In this period the Company was concerned about competition from 'foreign' gunmakers, particularly in relation to government and corporate contracts. It defined a 'foreigner' as anybody who was not a freeman of the City of London, regardless of nationality. In the 18th century Birmingham emerged as London's main rival in the gun trade and its makers began to win government contracts. The Gunmakers' Company was therefore forced to proof guns and parts made by foreigners, but did not allow them to use their own marks. The Company introduced a special foreign mark, the letter F under a crown, and a special proof charge. The maker of this pistol, Benjamin Griffin, was apprenticed to Samuel Harrison, a Birmingham gunmaker with premises on Bond Street. Griffin also came from outside London because his guns were stamped with the foreign mark. Benjamin's son Joseph was apprenticed to a freeman of the Gunmakers' Company, Samuel Blanckley, and then 'turned over' to his father by the Company in 1741. Joseph continued in the family business becoming one of London's most prominent gunmakers and Master of the Gunmakers' Company.

On a box-lock pistol the flash pan, cock and frizzen are on top instead of at the side. The pistol also features a screw-off cannon barrel and a decorative silver butt cap. It would have been purchased for personal protection. Pistols of this size could be kept in a person's overcoat pocket or belt for use against highwaymen or street robbers.