Item Description
Original Item: Only One Available. Well these things just never happen! Imagine an English country house auction sale where everything is "on the block"; massive oak furniture, old leather chairs, velvet curtains, even wheel barrows and then we get to the bric-a-brac, billiard cues, shooting sticks, stuffed animal heads and a neatly framed flintlock pistol in absolutely relic condition. Written up as a "French Flintlock Pistol Circa 1750, owned by a Mr, Hougoumont, used."
Framed in a nice red velvet backed board set inside a carved gilt frame is the remains, we mean remains, of just what they described. However it did not belong to any Mr. Hougoumont. On a blackened silver plaque on the back of the wrist was engraved:
WATERLOO 1815, found at HOUGOUMONT 1861
It is still a dreadful relic which perhaps does date from 1750 but the barrel has been shortened, the side plate is missing, the top jaw and screw are gone and an ugly iron band put around the front to hold it together. The silver plaque is clearly old, but the story?
Was this really some French officer's pocket pistol carried at Waterloo that lay down in the dirt for 46 years? Who can be sure? Somebody prized it to spend the money on the plaque and frame.
At the Auction nobody seemed interested in buying "Mr.Hougoumont's Pistol" so we got it with our opening bid! Now offered to you, just as found at an English county house auction, Mr. Hougoumont's Pistol with plaque and gilt frame. The story is the best part!
- This product is not available for shipping in US state(s): New Jersey
This product is available for international shipping.
- IMA considers all of our antique guns as non-firing, inoperable and/or inert. Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 921(a)(16) defines antique firearms as all guns made prior to 1899. This law exempts antique firearms from any form of gun control or special engineering because they are not legally considered firearms. No FFL, C&R or any license is required to posses, transport, sell or trade Antique guns. All rifles and muskets sold by IMA that were manufactured prior to 1899 are considered Antiques by the US BATF (United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms). Therefore, all of IMA's Antique guns may be shipped to all US States and most nations around the world.
These antique guns are not sold in live condition. They are sold as collector’s items or as wall hangers. Any attempt at restoring an antique gun to be operational is strongly discouraged and is done so at the risk of the customer. By purchasing an antique gun from IMA you thereby release IMA, its employees and corporate officers from any and all liability associated with use of our Antique guns.
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