Top seller at guns specialist Southams (15% buyer’s premium) in Bedford on September 20 was this cased pair of flintlock double-barrelled travelling pistols, above.
The 9½in (24cm) long, half-stocked damascus barrels were engraved Beckwith London for William Andrew Beckwith (fl.1785-1865). The case included a copper and brass three-way flask by Sykes, rosewood cleaning rod, steel bullet mould and turnscrew – with all ements described as clean and unrestored.
Online buyers across the sale included collectors from Poland, Bulgaria, France and Canada, but the Beckwith pair sold to a UK collector at £20,000 (estimate £12,000-18,000). Beckwith was a respected early 19th century maker working in Snow Hill, London, but never as fashionable, nor as prolific, as the likes of his contemporaries, the Mantons and the Nocks.