Blunderbuss

Flintlock blunderbusses of this type were typically manufactured for military or corporate clients like the East India and Hudson Bay Companies. They were often carried by sailors guarding enslaved Africans aboard ship or by troops defending colonial forts.

This blunderbuss was manufactured for the Board of Ordnance at the Tower of London. It is stamped 'Tower' and bears the royal cypher. From the 1720s the Ordnance began ordering components from Birmingham gunsmiths. Military service weapons were made to government specifications by arms contractors in London and Birmingham. The barrel of this rifle has been stamped with the proof mark of the Birmingham Gunmakers' Company. In 1804 a factory was established at the Tower of London to manufacture small arms for the British armed forces.