Pistol, flintlock duelling pistol

Charles Lennox used this pistol in a duel with the Duke of York (known popularly as The Grand Old Duke of York) on Wimbledon Common on 27 May 1789.

Robert Wogdon produced high quality flintlock firearms from the 1760s, and was particularly well known for his deadly accurate duelling pistols.

The duel as a single combat to resolve questions of honour become fashionable during the eighteenth century with the number fought peaking in the 1790s. Pistols came into common use in these duels in the early 1760s; few swords were used in duels in London after 1785. This led to a signficant reduction in duel participants' mortality rate - most escaped without any injury.

The name Wogdon became so synonymous with this ritual that duels in England were sometimes referred to as 'a Wogdon affair'. The 1783 poem 'Stanzas on Duelling' opens with 'Hail Wogdon! Patron of that Leaden death . . .' Wogdon formed a partnership in 1794 with John Barton, after which their pistols were signed Wogdon and Barton. Wogdon retired in 1803 and died in 1813.

This pistol has been fitted with a hair trigger, a standard feature of Wogdon's duelling pistols. These reduced the amount of finger pressure required to fire the pistol, greatly increasing accuracy of the shot.

Part of the unwritten 'code duello' was that each duelist only got one shot, and it was deemed 'fired' even if the pistol malfunctioned. So a well-crafted, reliable duelling pistol was essential.