Best University Lecutre
Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 9:54 pm
I was fortunate enough to be invited to a lecture by a gent who is associated with the university I attend.
It was conducted at his (rather large) house with 3 of us and a lecturer (more were invited and decided not to come)
We settled down in a room with wood paneled walls, a burning log fire and some instantly recognisable firearms on the wall, namely a India Pattern Brown Bess, 1807 Baker rifle, a Dutch Snaphaunce and a 1610ish German wheel lock hunting musket.
The focus for the talk/hands on session ended up being the development of Black powder firearms until 1860ish unfortunately my phone died and I didn't have my camera with me, but this guys collection was unbelievable! In the hour and a half there we must have handled several hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of firearms, ranging from wheel lock pocket pistols, to Long Land Service pattern Brown Bess. Some of these were one of a kind pieces, others there were 2 or 3 others in existance but they were in museums, namely the Royal Armouries of the Smithsonian.
Got to say the most impressive piece was a musket found in Oxford, made by one of King Charles Is personal gun makers, the barrel screwed onto the breech, it was rifled, short and very light and had lots of gold inlay. The owner made a rather convincing case that due to its location, time period and maker it would have likely belonged to a member of court, he personally liked to believe it could have belonged to either of the Princes, or even Charles himself who was only 4' 11" tall
It was conducted at his (rather large) house with 3 of us and a lecturer (more were invited and decided not to come)
We settled down in a room with wood paneled walls, a burning log fire and some instantly recognisable firearms on the wall, namely a India Pattern Brown Bess, 1807 Baker rifle, a Dutch Snaphaunce and a 1610ish German wheel lock hunting musket.
The focus for the talk/hands on session ended up being the development of Black powder firearms until 1860ish unfortunately my phone died and I didn't have my camera with me, but this guys collection was unbelievable! In the hour and a half there we must have handled several hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of firearms, ranging from wheel lock pocket pistols, to Long Land Service pattern Brown Bess. Some of these were one of a kind pieces, others there were 2 or 3 others in existance but they were in museums, namely the Royal Armouries of the Smithsonian.
Got to say the most impressive piece was a musket found in Oxford, made by one of King Charles Is personal gun makers, the barrel screwed onto the breech, it was rifled, short and very light and had lots of gold inlay. The owner made a rather convincing case that due to its location, time period and maker it would have likely belonged to a member of court, he personally liked to believe it could have belonged to either of the Princes, or even Charles himself who was only 4' 11" tall
