A DOG LOCK MUSKETOON BY BRAZIER WITH LINKS TO THE BATTLE OF ...

Estimate

£4,000 - £6,000

A DOG LOCK MUSKETOON BY BRAZIER WITH LINKS TO THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR.
With a massive 24" barrel with 2" swelling at the muzzle, approximately 2 bore for half a pound of shot. With London Proof house marks and IB to the barrel, the side plate further marked 'I. Brazier' the heavy stock with recent plate 'From Minterne House family seat of Sir Henry Digby Captain of H.M.S Africa, 64 at the Battle of Trafalgar 21st October 1805. 104cm overall length 18.5lbs (over 8kg) in weight.
Joseph Brazier was a Wolverhampton gunsmith from around 1702;
Provenance: This is one of a near pair of massive sea service musketooons by Brazier that were sold by Lawrences as part of the Minterne House 'Attic sales' in the 1990's.
Minterne was home to Sir Henry Digby, who commanded HMS Africa, 64, at Trafalgar. He had been in effect adopted by his childless uncle Admiral Robert Digby. This gun will most probably have belonged to one or other of these distinguished officers and it seems quite possible that it saw action at Trafalgar.
The three sided nail lock is 1" longer than the musket lock of the period and retains the doglock which was suppressed after the War of the Spanish Succession. This musketoon was converted for use as a rail gun by drilling a hole through the forestock at the point of balance. Without an iron bush inserted within the stock to spread the recoil the wood stock would have split. Originally at its date of manufacture the tang screw hole would have been drilled between the trigger and the front of its guard to engage a thread tapped into the barrel tang. Insertion of the bush necessitated removal of the trigger-guard which has been resited, possibly to allow room for a gloved hand in high latitudes. On reassembly the tang screw has been reversed, passing downwards to engage a rectangular steel nut inlet between the trigger and guard, this had become standard for sea service muskets by the 1740s. The bush within the stock obstructs the ramrod channel.