Flintlock fusil
Joseph Griffin (1726 - 1783)
Category
Arms and armour
Date
circa 1760
Materials
walnut, steel, iron & whalebone
Measurements
130 mm (Width) x 75 mm (Depth); 1410 mm (L)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire
NT 108517
Summary
Fine quality flintlock musket or officers fusil of military bore, circa 1760, by Joseph Griffin of Bond Street, London.
Full description
Fine quality flintlock musket or officers fusil of military bore, circa 1760, by Joseph Griffin, gunmaker, Bond Street, London (fl. 1741-1782). Round iron barrel with turned mouldings at the breech, stamped with London Gunmakers Company proof marks and the makers mark IG within a cartouche, and signed, GRIFFIN, BOND STREET, LONDON. The muzzle with a bayonet lug. Secured to the stock by 3 barrel slides. Whalebone ramrod with a horn tip. Barrel length 102.2cm Calibre 17mm. Walnut full stock, finishing 9cm before the muzzle, with deeply curving butt of hand-rail form, carved behind the barrel tang with a shell motif. The forestock a with hole for attaching a sling swivel. Engraved and chiselled iron furniture comprising; butt-plate, trigger guard with acanthus-form finial and lug for a sling swivel, scroll-form escutcheon, pierced side-plate, and 4 ramrod pipes. Flintlock, the lockplate of rounded form, with boarder engraving and signed GRIFFIN. The frizzen spring with trefoil finial. Retained to the stock by 2 side-nails (1 missing). Overall length 139.7cm
Provenance
Purchased in 1987 by the National Trust from Francis Curzon, 3rd Viscount Scarsdale (1924-2000).
Marks and inscriptions
GRIFFIN BOND STREET LONDON (maker's mark, engraved, top of barrel, text)
Makers and roles
Joseph Griffin (1726 - 1783), gunsmith
References
Blackmore, 1986: Howard Blackmore: A Dictionary of London Gunmakers 1350-1850 Neal & Back, 1989: William Keith Neal & David Back, Griffin & Tow & W. Bailes