.69 caliber smoothbore. 10.75" barrel secured by a single double strapped barrel band with a Wickham's improvement stud. NSN. Bright finish, iron furntiure, walnut stock. Single shot flintlock smoothbore muzzleloading pistol with no rear sight, no front sight and a trumpet shaped wooden ramrod with an iron jag at the end. Flint lock remains in original flint with an integral bridled, rounded and fenced iron pan, showing matching assembly marks on nearly every part, including the exterior battery screws. A Masonic {Square & Compass} are marked inside the lock plate. The lock is marked with an {Eagle} over "US" and stamped in three vertical lines at the tail "SPRING / FIELD / 1818". Barrel marked "1818" on top and with a raised "P" in a sunken oval proof, along with an {Eagle Head} and a "V" on the left quadrant. Traces of an illegible script cartouche are present behind the rear lock screw on the counterpane.

These large .69 caliber pistols, known correctly to collectors as both the Model 1807 and the Model 1817, are a rarity in marial arms collecting becasue only 1,000 were made and they were one of only three pistol types made in quantity at the Springfield Arsenal, the other two being the Model 1855 Pistol Carbine and the Model 1911. The orignial production was authroized and begun in 1807 but after the fabrication of a few hundred locks and barrels, the massive .69 pistol project were shelved in preference for a smaller caliber. In 1817 the authorization was granted to use up the parts on hand producing these guns, theoretically for naval issue. The old parts were used up and additional parts were made as needed to manufacture 1,000 of the guns. Many of the later locks were actually orignally made at Springfield in hopes of producing Model 1803 Rifles at that facility but that project was abandoned and all the rifle parts made other than the locks were sent to Harpers Ferry. Upon completion these pistols sat in storage and were still in the Springfield Arsenal inventory in 1850. When they were sold off as surplus most were then altered to percussion, so flintlock examples are extremely rare. Some of the percussion altered examples saw use during the early days of the Civil War. A very rare and important US martial pistol, particularly for a collector specializing in Springfield made arms. {ANTIQUE}

Good. Bore dark, oxidized and pitted. Metal lightly cleaned long ago and toning down with moderate oxidation a salt and pepper patina and showing age discoloration and scattered pitting. Markings remain mostly legible in the metal, weak in wood. Lock remains in original flint and is mechanically functional. Wood lightly sanded with the backstrap slightly proud of the wood. Wood with numerous scattered bumps, dings and mars.