August 11, 12, & 13, 2020 Field & Range Firearms
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/11/2020
An excellent example of a contemporary smith attempting to ride the coatttails of another well respected gunsmith. Features 31 - 3/4" brown Damascus barrels with diminutive bead front sight and scalloped out rear sight. Rib spuriously inlaid "MANTON LONDON". Gold bushing touch holes. Left and right hand flint locks stamped "MANTON" with water proof pans, roller bearing frizzens, and swan neck cocks decorated with lines and filed. Ramrod, possibly the original, retained by two ferrules. Trigger guard decorated with a bird (pheasant?) in flight and border engraving, pineapple finial. Silver thumbpiece with a largely faded crest depicting a crown over what appears to be an arm with a sword. Wrist checkered in point pattern, shadowline cheekpiece, buttplate with decorations at top of heel. CONDITION: Very good as carefully preserved. Barrels retain virtually all of their brown with a few minor marks from handling and operation, locks with some minor markings from age. Trigger guard and tang have been carefully cleaned, leaving legends somewhat soft. Wood with an extra coat of varnish that has thoroughly coated the checkering. Action works appropriately when operated by hand, bores are excellent with a minimum of pitting. EW
CORRECTION: Both locks have had their mainsprings kick and damage the wood around the locks, with wood glue repair visible inside the locks and cracks on exterior. Right side of forearm has splice repair near locks.