Antique pistol

[JackFish]

This is something my grandfather had.
The only thing I have been able to find out is that there was an english gunmaker named John Utting around 1799-1820.

Any ideas? It's about a .50 caliber.

 

[UncleS2]

The only thing I can offer that might be useful: percussion caps didn't come into common use until the 1820s, though flintlock use went on for years after that(especially in the boonies). If it was made circa 1799-1820, it's either a *very* early percussion pistol- maybe too early

- or, more likely, has been converted from flintlock.

 

[JackFish]

The only other gun I have seen on an online auction by the same maker was a flintlock. So perhaps it was a conversion kit!

I doubt that it would have been converted in recent history. Maybe back then when the gun might have been "updated" to "modern" technology.

 

[JackFish]

Or the gunmaker continued to produce firearms into the percussion era period.

 

[Camu Mahubah]

Well it is an interesting conversation piece. Keep researching and you will gradually discover more about it's provenance. What caliber is it?

 

[Camu Mahubah]

Oh I see you say it's a .50.

Hmmm...I'll go see what I can dig up...

 

[Camu Mahubah]

Well I got the guy's address!

http://www.gabelguns.com/QuestionsAndAnswers/ViewQuestion.asp?QuestionNumber=12193

 

[JackFish]

Ya, that's the only reference I could come up with as well.

 

[greenaccord02]

I looked through some of my books and I can't find anything.

 

[wavinwayne]

FWIW: Utting

 

[JackFish]

Footnote:
John Utting is recorded at various addresses in Borough between 1800 and 1824. He was Gunmaker to Police Office, Union Street, Southwark between 1798-1815

That being the case, this then is probably a converted pistol.
Police issue...