Dear Collector

Welcome to our second newsletter. Thank you for all of your encouraging comments following our first newsletter, it is good to know that it was well received.

We have had some interesting conversations with customers, both old and new, who have concluded that with their confidence in the great British banking institutions on the wane that they feel happier to invest in something more tangible that has the added benefit of enjoyment of ownership – a view that we are happy to share!

We have some very fine new stock, brief details of which follow together with links to our website where fuller descriptions and photographs are to be found.

This month we have another excellent piece for you to read by De Witt Bailey this time on Royal Naval Longarms 1700-1870.

Our ‘Book Review’ looks at Sim Comfort’s newly published ‘Naval Swords and Dirks’.

We will be exhibiting at the London Arms Fair on Friday 26th & Saturday 27th May at the Hotel Ibis Earls Court, 47 Lillie Road, London, SW6 1UD & look forward to meeting many of you there. Our Dorking showroom will be closed on these days. 

Whilst email is a very useful way to communicate nothing will take place of a chat, and we like nothing better than to chat about arms and armour so please feel free to call us or if distance allows pop into our shop!

 

Should you wish to unsubscribe there is a link at the bottom of this page, if you wish to return to receiving a paper copy of our catalogues, or have suggestions on improvements to this newsletter, please email us at weststant@aol.com.

 

A Superb Sporting Rifle by John Manton in near mint condition. 

 

 

The 32 ½” octagonal browned twist barrel of 18 bore with 2 groove rifling for belted ball, foresight, 3 leaf rearsight, top flat engraved ‘John Manton & Son, Dover Street, London’. Breech engraved with scrolling foliage, percussion nipple with pierced platinum plug, the underside with London proof marks & ‘18’ & numbered 11288 for 1838, the lug for the false breech also numbered 11288, the underside of the barrel with rib for the 2 ramrod pipes, the rear one with a ring for a sling, loop for the barrel retaining key. Rosewood ramrod with brass tip which unscrews to reveal jag & thread for other cleaning tools, the other end with brass threaded head for a turned handle to assist loading. The lock with safety bolt & dolphin head hammer, the plate finely engraved with a stag in landscape & scrolling foliage & John Manton & Son patent. 2 triggers, the rear one for set the other for firing, half stock of best quality figured walnut with horn forend cap & ramrod tail pipe. Barrel tang finely engraved with a stag’s head & scrolling foliage, small rectangular escutcheon with a heraldic crest & initials GCF, comb & carved cheek piece, iron butt plate, the tang finely engraved with a tiger in landscape & scrolling foliage & signed. Scrolled trigger guard with pineapple finial, the bow engraved with a leopard in landscape & scrolling foliage also signed, ring for sling. Contained in its original green baize lined brass bound mahogany fitted case with trade label, the fourth label used from 1825-1846 ‘John Manton & Son Gun Makers to the Royal Family, No 6 Dover Street London, Patentees for Self Priming Guns’, the case contains various accessories including a bullet mould for belted ball numbered 11288, a Sykes patent rifle flask, a leather wallet containing a ‘T’ shaped combination tool including pricker, Manton’ s patent hexagonal nipple key, a wooden box with 2 handles for loading rod, 2 cleaning tools & a spare side nail, the bottom of the box with a paper label with no. 11288, the case also has a similar paper label, lid of the case with inset ring hinged handle & escutcheon engraved with a crest & a dove over initial GCF. Signed engravings on English firearms at this period are exceptionally rare, the signature ‘Sherman’ refers to Welby Sherman (FL1827-1836) who was one of the more obscure members of the ‘Ancients’, a group of like minded artists who Followed William Blake and turned their backs on the modern world by going back to the Middle Ages for inspiration, he was known to of engraved works for the artist Samuel Palmer. .Examples in The Tate Galleries John Manton & Son at 6 Dover Street London 1815-78 originally John & George Henry Manton. John b1752 apprenticed to John Dixon, Leicester 1766, passed on to William Edson, Grantham Lincs 1768, served as foreman to John Twigg, Gunsmith at 6 Dover Street, Piccadilly 1781-1814. Son George Henry Manton joined father in partnership 1815. John Manton died 1834, business continued until 1878. John & his brother Joseph (separate business) were considered the finest gunsmiths of their era & the quality of their workmanship has probably never been bettered. All in very good condition, the barrel with original browning, the gun furniture with much original colour. 

 

Please use the links to our website below which will provide a detailed description and photograph:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Naval Swords and Dirks by Sim Comfort
published August 2008

559 pages bound in two volumes (11 ½” x 8 ¾”) complete with dust wrappers, together with a special supplement, all within a fine slip case.

Produced to the highest quality, beautifully illustrated and photographed with over 1,750 images, this is a limited edition of 750 numbered, signed sets.

pic here

 

This new work is the culmination of years of research. It is written for the collector by a collector and Sim Comfort’s knowledge and enthusiasm for his subject is evident on every page. 

From the frontispiece:

‘In the end, most fights at sea culminated by one opponent boarding the other to win their prize. Naval Swords and Dirks explores the weapons used by both officers and men during the Age of Fighting Sail.
174 British, 21 French and 33 American edged weapons form the basis of this study which has allowed the author to explore many avenues regarding the shifts in style and supply of naval swords and dirks.
Written by a collector for other collectors and museum curators, this work includes all of the makers’ marks and cartouches found on all of the signed swords.’

Following an informative introduction the main body of the work is in catalogue style with examples colour photographed in detail with a comprehensive description, details of condition, date, nationality and background. It is the background information that makes this book eminently readable with histories of the makers, the owners where provenanced, and the action that they saw together with a multitude of other interesting notes.
Throughout each item has its own bibliography enabling the reader to easily expand their research should they wish.
The set is well indexed and contains a useful glossary with illustrated examples.

Essential reading for novice & established collectors, a most useful work of reference that should be on the bookshelf

Available from West Street Antiques for £150 including postage within the UK, overseas at cost.

 

Please follow this link to read De Witt Bailey’s informative article ‘Royal Naval Longarms 1700-1870’ first published in ‘Guns Review’ in 1980 (re printed on our website by his kind permission).