One of the joys of the Internet (for me anyway) is a weekly E-mail from INTERNATIONAL MILITARY ANTIQUES listing wonderful specials I usually can't afford but love to look at. I think of it as a weekly visit to a museum.
Personally I think there is an advantage to IMA's website. At the museum you look at the objects behind glass. You have no way to turn it this way and that to look for details.
IMA gives us eighteen beautiful, large images of this icon exposing loads of detail.
Perhap it isn't as good as actually holding the weapon, but how often will a museum let you do that?
OK, some of the smaller museums...maybe.
This week one of the offered items was, as the title suggest, an English .65 Calibur Double Barreled Flintlock Handgun.
The barrels are about nine and a half inches long.
The weapons over-all length is fifteen and a half inches.
The weight isn't listed, but one look and you know it isn't going to be light.
As ono of my old friend used to say, if it wasn't love at first sight it was very serious lust.
This beauty would have been a personal purchase item for a British Officer. They were built in the Napolenic Wars and saw service for some years after.
The maker was Durs Egg of London.
I confess to a second reason for being so fascinated by this weapon.
Of late I have been re-reading S.M. Stirling's Nantucket series.
I can't help wondering if Mr. Sterling had seen one of these before writing, or while researching the books.
You can bet Marian had.
If anyone is interested, it's available. I don't recall the exact price, but it was between $14,000.00 and $15,000.00. I won't be inquiring about it at this time.
Should International Miltary Antiques object to me using these photos let me know and I will take them down at once.
Elegant! But then your know my tastes run to engraved weapons, anyhow. Fortunately there is no danger for either of us.
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