British Musketoon & Pistol
 

Good evening gents, I would like your opinion on these two items as I know next to nothing about 19th century firearms. The musket specially is hard to pin down as it has some British qualities but lots of American as well. Thank you.

The pistol

Hello

In my opinion, these are two weapons, not regulatory, but similar. The barrel of the musket (cavalry, artillery?) lacks test punches. The ramrod is held by a spring, which fits into a channel in a thickening, as in some regulation models. The piece with a perforation in front of the trigger guard looks like the one that held a chain in later percussion models, so as not to lose a trigger guard. The lock with the inscription BARNETT and a crown, thus refers to a piece assembled with different pieces, but vintage, and sold to countries at war by English gunsmiths.

As for the pistol, although it has a barrel with what appear to be marks of the test punch (two crowned scepters) of the tower and a punch with the reigning monarch (GR) and the wide arrow indicating ownership of the Crown, the lock is not of a regulatory model. Notice the priming pan, faceted like the civilian models and fastened by screws instead of being welded or forged, the counter-plate with a military design, although it lacks a stock pommel

For me, it was about two weapons sold in times of scarcity
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Paneles laterales

Thank you Fernando that is really helpful. A lot of of the other items on this American auction where from the Indian war so it makes perfect sense as the British sold them a lot of surplus stuff.

Barnett was one of several sizable & lasting gunmakers who would make up affordable guns from obsolete ex Ordnance parts that they acquired. A good example is a rifled 'carbine' that I catalogued yesterday, the lock marked BARNETT LONDON had the small crown arrow govt acceptance stamp and was the lock type used on trial P/1853 rifles - essentially a P/1853 lock with a screw to secure the mainspring - while the barrel was a King George era proofed Baker Rifle barrel that was shortened & had a percussioned short breech section screwed on. The gun was made after the aforementioned lock was obsolete which would not have been before about 1855.