Victorian Muff Pistol

[BrodieBartfast]

I bet that title got your attention!

No, this isn't a joke, but a legitimate name for this type of pistol. First, a brief explanation: as well as its crude meaning in modern English, in this context, 'muff' refers to a type of hand-warmer that was very popular with women in the Victorian period. These pistols, designed to be compact and easily concealable, could be hidden within the hand-warmer to surprise an unsuspecting mugger. They were in fact carried by women and men alike, but a lack of pockets on women's clothing of the period meant a hand muff was one of the few places a woman could conceal such a weapon.

This example was made by the company 'Lacy & Co.' of London, and is a percussion cap design, dating it to around the latter half of the 19th Century. Earlier models were produced using flintlock mechanisms. The bore is about 1.3 cm in diameter, though I'm not sure what that translates to in terms of caliber. Externally, this pistol is in quite presentable condition, with no significant surface rust or pitting. Internally it's a different story. The inside of the barrel is badly corroded and pitted, as is the nipple for mounting percussion caps. The firing mechanism remains functional.

Though it will obviously never fire again, this little pistol makes a nice curio and conversation piece, and is overall a nice piece of firearms history.



B.B.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Nice example. I sell a lot of these at work. Always popular.

[BrodieBartfast]

Nice example. I sell a lot of these at work. Always popular.

Thank you, I can see why they’re so popular. Small, but somehow very satisfying things to own.

B.B.

[lithgow]

The pistol would more likely be early/mid 19th century as a percussion/screw barrel design-the obvious problems with such a design is the hammer catching on any clothing and the 'one shot only (if everything works)' nature of it.

[BrodieBartfast]

The pistol would more likely be early/mid 19th century as a percussion/screw barrel design-the obvious problems with such a design is the hammer catching on any clothing and the 'one shot only (if everything works)' nature of it.

Thank you for the clarification. I'm not at all familiar with pre-20th Century firearms, so I'm happy to be corrected.

B.B.

[Richard2]

It really looks nice externally. Is the bore in good enough shape to tell if it was rifled? On one hand, for a little pistol with no sights there probably was no need for rifling. On the other hand, the Philadelphia Deringers were rifled, even though they were little pistols like yours, and screw barrel pistols were often rifled because it was so easy to load a groove diameter bullet.

[BrodieBartfast]

It really looks nice externally. Is the bore in good enough shape to tell if it was rifled? On one hand, for a little pistol with no sights there probably was no need for rifling. On the other hand, the Philadelphia Deringers were rifled, even though they were little pistols like yours, and screw barrel pistols were often rifled because it was so easy to load a groove diameter bullet.

The barrel is badly corroded, but having cleaned up most of the rust and examined it with a bright light, I can say with confidence that it’s non-rifled. As you say, there wasn’t much need for rifling when the target was pretty much point blank!

B.B.