TH-cam is taking an especially long time to generate subtitles - this might be likely to us switching to a higher resolution bitrate/codec which takes longer for TH-cam to process. In the meantime the editor has generated automatic subtitles on his editing software (apologies for any auto-generated typos or AI being unable to understand Jonathan) and uploaded them to the video for those who require them. We'll try process the video far earlier to sort this in the future. Cheers :)
Back in 1986 I was in St Asaph with my late father, there was a Marstons pub called The Bull we were having a pint awaiting the Marstons Hippo steam lorry to arrive, the Landlord was an avid collector of all manner of things, including a very comprehensive collection of early Webley air pistols. However what was more interesting was a small single shot percussion pistol, all engraved with Ivory grip and a hidden trigger which dropped down when the hammer was cocked. It was in a purple velvet case complete with ram rod and miniature shot and the tiniest percussion caps I have ever seen. It was about half the size of this particular example that you have, and was featured in a book that the Landlord showed us, I have often wondered over the years where this little pistol ended up.
@@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries That's interesting indeed, I would love to see a picture of them both. I remember the Landlord showing my late father and I the book which contained a couple small glossy photographs of the pistol, and him asking us where we thought that would be, we both assumed it would be in a museum somewhere and he then pulled a small velvet bag out of his pocket which cntained the purple velvet case with the pistol inside. He was an avid collector of all manner of things from police helmets truncheons, handcuffs etc and the Webley air pistols and other items many of which were hanging on the beams above the bar and around the pub. It has stuck in my mind ever since, the engraving alone was amazing on something so small, I seem to think it was only around two inches long and the shot for it was like grains of sand.
I mention 'essay' pieces' at one point (unless that got cut out?). It's possible, we just don't have any proof that it was done in the gunmaking world. Although I should ask the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers because they might have come across such proof.
@@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries Yep they'd definitely be the people to ask. I've been meaning to email you guys about whether you have any info on weapons the War Trphies Comitee gave out after WW!? At our Museum we have a pair of Tank Gewehrs and a MG 08/15 with no Provenance. I have a sneaking suspicion the WTC gave them to us.
There are a number of books on miniature firearms, such as "Belgian Miniature Firearms" and "Early Miniature Firearms", both by John Cooper, and "Miniature Firearms" by Merrill Lindsay. "The Art of Miniature Firearms" deals with modern examples. And there are more. Mostly out of print but they can be found. I find them fascinating.
Yes, I actually should have mentioned that we have more literature here than we do actual miniatures - including issues of the British Miniature Arms Society Newsletter!
Most interesting, thank you for sharing. You mention that he came from Appleby, there was a large family of Clockmakers in the 18th century called Wilson in and around that area, Kendal, Askrigg, Kirkby Stephen to name a few of their other locations.
@@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries Yes I agree, there would certainly be some transferable skills. In the early 17th century the previously mentioned Wilson family can be traced to Newcastle upon Tyne and Thirsk working as locksmiths. I recently researched a percussion gun by Joseph Wood of York and found that they were also a family in the jewellery and watchmaking trade.
Probably - but no more or less than any other curved muzzleloading pistol really. It would work better than some being that shape, and I do think martial pistols retained a club shape for "clubbing your pistol", but very few pistols are truly specialised for the purpose with a so-called "skull-cracker" buttcap. More fashion and period ideas of ergonomics I think.
Thanks for flagging this, TH-cam automatically generates them (we haven't turned them off they just haven't been generated yet because of processing times and video length etc.) In the meantime we've added some manually. Hope this helps.
While not a flintlock, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has a ring with a built-in wheel lock on display that was used by one of the Stadtholders (from memory, William III) to shoot paper wads in school. It is missing its barrel, but it is even smaller than this…
Jonathan would you ever take on an apprentice of sorts to pass your knowledge and skillset on to? Your passion for what you do is magnetic and I'd love to one day be an expert with such a love and understanding of my field.
When Jonathan first found the scroll I was already typing - Rumor is Jonathan did find a pirate map and that's why he didn't show it on camera. But then they showed it on camera, still finding it was a great bit of fun for everyone's imagination! Ha ha ha! :D
I once had a set of miniature guns, bought in Italy, one of them was a Sten subgun set up to fire a primer I think, this was nearly 40yrs ago and I've long since lost them and don't remember the detail exactly, but the other was a sort of webley looking single primer shot affair. They had been made immediately post WW2 from what I remember the shop owner explaining to me, intended to be sold to a british soldier to take home. I think he said he had a US equivalent of it earlier that he had already sold. The things did have actual barrels that were bored through but of about 2/3 the diameter of a .22 and they were made of steel. My guess is that with the right kind of primer you could have shot some paper wad or clay or something out of them to support your claim of them being "real guns" heh. They stood out to me because they were not plugged like toy guns always are, and the sort of plaque and paperwork they came with did not look at all like something really intended for a child to play with as a toy, they gave me more the sense of these being meant to be on a wall of some office and for the office occupant to brag about where they were in the war and show miniatures of their wartime guns. They were finished like a real gun etc, not painted like toys are. Wish I remembered more about them, I did show the Sten to a gunsmith friend once who immediately wanted to buy it heh
@@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries Yes, you said sparks from the flint. They sell carbide "Flints" that are hard enought to scrape shards of metal from the frizzen, sorry about being perdantic but many gunt people don't know this.
So we're back to Christmas pistols, I see! It's a pity that the old video isn't around anymore. 0:15 Why is it called 'Queen Anne', if it's from the mid-eighteenth century? Is it some sort of 'Queen Anne is dead' joke, or was this style in vogue still decades after? 0:33 There was no such post here on YT for some reason. 2:52 Some of them were quite significant, to the point that the most junior officer ranks in some militaries was reportedly named after cornet. 11:37 Nice touch including the whole process. 15:46 What does it mean to be made free of the Gunmakers Company exactly?
0:15 - collector's term, based on the period where they first become popular, just within her reign. 15:46 - I probably should have clarified that - it means you're free to operate commercially as a gunmaker rather than being an apprentice or other underling of one.
Thanks very much Jonathan and team. Both of those pistols look exquisite. PS - don't you have to carefully heat the concealed parchment in a candle flame to reveal the secret writing and the location of the treasure?
Well you don't do that _on camera,_ you play it off like it's nothing and gather your friends at midnight in a secret location. Don't forget the crotchety old person who knows exactly how to plan every operation but insists it will never work, and of course you have to invite the fresh-faced young newbie who needs everything about treasure-hunting explained to them in detail.
Come now, Johnathan. Every gun collector knows that Wilson was the gun maker for Tom Thumb, duelist extraordinaire. Calls himself a firearms expert "wanders off muttering". 😜
I wonder if this is like those mini Japanese matchlock pistols, or even those pin fire keyring pistols in the US. Something that could fire, if you really want to, but otherwise just to show off with
One wonders if something like this would have been a, show-off, for a watchmaker. Or, a somewhat functional thingy, to light up a cigar... It's a funny thing, Jonathan of 2124 would find that paper far more interesting.
I REALLY wanted to do the Father Ted thing but it was technically beyond us on the day (only poor Josh running three cameras and sound!). I should have at least referenced it though...
I'd bet it was a gag gift, from somebody with a lot of money and a sick and twisted mind. Imagine: "Happy Birthday! I got you a pistol, just like you wanted. One of those new ones with the threaded barrel." (Pulls out full-size pistol case and hands it over) "REALLY?! AWESOME!" (Excitedly opens case to reveal what's TECHNICALLY a fully functioning pistol) "Oh, COME ON!"
We've recently changed the codec/bitrate of the videos to deliver the highest quality but it may take TH-cam a bit longer to process, hopefully they'll be added soon. EDIT: Looks like they still haven't been generated yet, so we've added some manually until then.
Jonathan's pretending that it can't be fired because the sear is worn, the flint might not spark, the powder won't be fine enough, every excuse he can think of. In reality it's because nobody at the Armouries is confident in firing such a powerful pistol, and they're not even sure they have a range that can handle the blast.
But wait!....what's this I see rolled up and stuffed inside the tiny barrel of the tiny pistol! ?.....an exact tiny copy of the piece of paper with the note from the previous owner, stating it belonged to his grandfather!! 😮 You should wear it as a lapel badge! 😊 Oh....and by the way, a pleading request: I have synesthesia and the colour of those awful gloves you wear, give me the equivalent of an ice cream headache!! Please change them as it makes watching your lovely videos unbearable! Purple was ok.....black? Anything other than that horrid greenish turquoise blue nightmare! 😂😢
I'm sorry to hear that - we had complaints about the blue (they are actually light blue) gloves previously and they tear far too easily. I would love black but it would make the guns/parts harder to see :( Is there any consistency between the experience of sufferers? If we found a different colour would it affect someone else as badly? Probably not a fair question to ask.
TH-cam is taking an especially long time to generate subtitles - this might be likely to us switching to a higher resolution bitrate/codec which takes longer for TH-cam to process. In the meantime the editor has generated automatic subtitles on his editing software (apologies for any auto-generated typos or AI being unable to understand Jonathan) and uploaded them to the video for those who require them. We'll try process the video far earlier to sort this in the future. Cheers :)
Back in 1986 I was in St Asaph with my late father, there was a Marstons pub called The Bull we were having a pint awaiting the Marstons Hippo steam lorry to arrive, the Landlord was an avid collector of all manner of things, including a very comprehensive collection of early Webley air pistols.
However what was more interesting was a small single shot percussion pistol, all engraved with Ivory grip and a hidden trigger which dropped down when the hammer was cocked. It was in a purple velvet case complete with ram rod and miniature shot and the tiniest percussion caps I have ever seen.
It was about half the size of this particular example that you have, and was featured in a book that the Landlord showed us, I have often wondered over the years where this little pistol ended up.
Interesting! We actually do have a pair of even smaller miniature antique pistols - percussion and indeed cased, like the one you mention.
@@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries That's interesting indeed, I would love to see a picture of them both. I remember the Landlord showing my late father and I the book which contained a couple small glossy photographs of the pistol, and him asking us where we thought that would be, we both assumed it would be in a museum somewhere and he then pulled a small velvet bag out of his pocket which cntained the purple velvet case with the pistol inside.
He was an avid collector of all manner of things from police helmets truncheons, handcuffs etc and the Webley air pistols and other items many of which were hanging on the beams above the bar and around the pub.
It has stuck in my mind ever since, the engraving alone was amazing on something so small, I seem to think it was only around two inches long and the shot for it was like grains of sand.
@@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries Oh please do a Christmas special video on them as a follow up to this video??? 🙏
12:18 good cameraman. keep it rolling no matter what happens
Could it be an apprentice piece? Cabinet and furniture apprentices would aften make minitures to show off their skills.
That would be a really cool addition to the history of the piece of it can be traced
Could be, but gunmaking in miniature is a distinct field of craftsmanship that goes back centuries. There are tiny matchlocks and wheellocks.
I mention 'essay' pieces' at one point (unless that got cut out?). It's possible, we just don't have any proof that it was done in the gunmaking world. Although I should ask the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers because they might have come across such proof.
That’s what I was thinking.
@@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries Yep they'd definitely be the people to ask. I've been meaning to email you guys about whether you have any info on weapons the War Trphies Comitee gave out after WW!? At our Museum we have a pair of Tank Gewehrs and a MG 08/15 with no Provenance. I have a sneaking suspicion the WTC gave them to us.
A pistol for an owner who really isn't worried about compensating for anything.
The note in the barrel made me think - any particularly interesting finds the Armouries have come across in a rifle stock, etc?
There are a number of books on miniature firearms, such as "Belgian Miniature Firearms" and "Early Miniature Firearms", both by John Cooper, and "Miniature Firearms" by Merrill Lindsay. "The Art of Miniature Firearms" deals with modern examples. And there are more. Mostly out of print but they can be found. I find them fascinating.
Yes, I actually should have mentioned that we have more literature here than we do actual miniatures - including issues of the British Miniature Arms Society Newsletter!
Time to shine a light into every barrel in the collection. Maybe that Ian and Jonathan treasure hunt movie can be a documentary instead of fiction.
Reminds me of the miniature percussion cap pistols I made years ago, to fire BBs.
3:18 "you vs the guy she tells you not to worry about"
Its the flintlock colibri lol
Battlefield 1711
Most interesting, thank you for sharing.
You mention that he came from Appleby, there was a large family of Clockmakers in the 18th century called Wilson in and around that area, Kendal, Askrigg, Kirkby Stephen to name a few of their other locations.
That's interesting - I did briefly look at gunmakers there and didn't see any, but transferable skills perhaps.
@@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries Yes I agree, there would certainly be some transferable skills. In the early 17th century the previously mentioned Wilson family can be traced to Newcastle upon Tyne and Thirsk working as locksmiths.
I recently researched a percussion gun by Joseph Wood of York and found that they were also a family in the jewellery and watchmaking trade.
Adds a whole new to the phrase "mouse gun". Great episode as usual. Thanks.
Jonathan: Tosses the piece of paper into the bin
Internet Firearms Weeb: I will pay 5000 bucks for this
"Just to prove that I can" has explained an awful lot of things in human history...
I would *love* to receive that for a stocking stuffer!! Thanks for the video, Jonathan! 👍
Was that rounded part of the Grip with its iron/metal intended to be used as a form of last dich billet/club?
Probably - but no more or less than any other curved muzzleloading pistol really. It would work better than some being that shape, and I do think martial pistols retained a club shape for "clubbing your pistol", but very few pistols are truly specialised for the purpose with a so-called "skull-cracker" buttcap. More fashion and period ideas of ergonomics I think.
PLEASE enable the closed captions!! I have bad hearing and I love your program!! Thanks.
Thanks for flagging this, TH-cam automatically generates them (we haven't turned them off they just haven't been generated yet because of processing times and video length etc.) In the meantime we've added some manually. Hope this helps.
@@RoyalArmouriesMuseum Thank you, I had no idea that UTube generated those sub-titles. I'll be a bit more patient.......
While not a flintlock, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has a ring with a built-in wheel lock on display that was used by one of the Stadtholders (from memory, William III) to shoot paper wads in school. It is missing its barrel, but it is even smaller than this…
Yeah, you're not scaring anybody with that.
Maybe a Borrower or Stuart Little?
I still don’t want it in my eye.
Jonathan would you ever take on an apprentice of sorts to pass your knowledge and skillset on to? Your passion for what you do is magnetic and I'd love to one day be an expert with such a love and understanding of my field.
When Jonathan first found the scroll I was already typing - Rumor is Jonathan did find a pirate map and that's why he didn't show it on camera.
But then they showed it on camera, still finding it was a great bit of fun for everyone's imagination! Ha ha ha! :D
I once had a set of miniature guns, bought in Italy, one of them was a Sten subgun set up to fire a primer I think, this was nearly 40yrs ago and I've long since lost them and don't remember the detail exactly, but the other was a sort of webley looking single primer shot affair. They had been made immediately post WW2 from what I remember the shop owner explaining to me, intended to be sold to a british soldier to take home. I think he said he had a US equivalent of it earlier that he had already sold.
The things did have actual barrels that were bored through but of about 2/3 the diameter of a .22 and they were made of steel. My guess is that with the right kind of primer you could have shot some paper wad or clay or something out of them to support your claim of them being "real guns" heh. They stood out to me because they were not plugged like toy guns always are, and the sort of plaque and paperwork they came with did not look at all like something really intended for a child to play with as a toy, they gave me more the sense of these being meant to be on a wall of some office and for the office occupant to brag about where they were in the war and show miniatures of their wartime guns. They were finished like a real gun etc, not painted like toys are.
Wish I remembered more about them, I did show the Sten to a gunsmith friend once who immediately wanted to buy it heh
Personally, I always use packing tape to fix my Christmas decorations in place…
It's the tape that would least leave a mark on their brand new racking ;)
@@RoyalArmouriesMuseumgood luck with that.😊
The title of this episode should have been "This one is small. This one is far, far away" 🤣
Disappointed that the small gun didn't also have a note from the previous owner stored in the barrel
I'm absolutely positive a cased pair of that miniature would easily fit in a Christmas stocking.
Call Me Kevin's dad seems like a pretty cool guy.
I would suppose that this was a "boast piece" made to show off the skill and precision of the gun maker.
be cool to see a zoom fade with the little gun gandolfed up close to appear identical size
😳🤯 I'm pretty sure anything smaller than that flintlock can only be measured in Planck lengths. Another great video! Thank you 👍
Violence among The Borrowers is rare, but not unheard of.
Imagine being GameSpot and firing this guy
I didn't work for them :)
It's not sparks from the flint as in a cigarette lighter but shards of white hot steel scrapped from the frizzen.
Did I say otherwise?
@@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries Yes, you said sparks from the flint. They sell carbide "Flints" that are hard enought to scrape shards of metal from the frizzen, sorry about being perdantic but many gunt people don't know this.
The Rule of Cool has been around for a long, long time for this thing to exist. "Because it's cool."
I'd happily take the little one as a stocking stuffer
Very cool
So we're back to Christmas pistols, I see! It's a pity that the old video isn't around anymore.
0:15 Why is it called 'Queen Anne', if it's from the mid-eighteenth century? Is it some sort of 'Queen Anne is dead' joke, or was this style in vogue still decades after?
0:33 There was no such post here on YT for some reason.
2:52 Some of them were quite significant, to the point that the most junior officer ranks in some militaries was reportedly named after cornet.
11:37 Nice touch including the whole process.
15:46 What does it mean to be made free of the Gunmakers Company exactly?
0:15 - collector's term, based on the period where they first become popular, just within her reign.
15:46 - I probably should have clarified that - it means you're free to operate commercially as a gunmaker rather than being an apprentice or other underling of one.
@@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries Ah, I see, thanks for clarification!
I've heard that in the 16th century arms dealers used fully functional miniature cannons to demonstrate their products to potentional customers.
I'd like to have a miniature version that is a cap lock. I'll bet you could shoot light projectiles with just the percussion cap
Looks like a Proof of Craftsmanship piece. The kind of thing they had before mass media advertising.
Thanks very much Jonathan and team. Both of those pistols look exquisite.
PS - don't you have to carefully heat the concealed parchment in a candle flame to reveal the secret writing and the location of the treasure?
Well you don't do that _on camera,_ you play it off like it's nothing and gather your friends at midnight in a secret location. Don't forget the crotchety old person who knows exactly how to plan every operation but insists it will never work, and of course you have to invite the fresh-faced young newbie who needs everything about treasure-hunting explained to them in detail.
I'd use a precious stone instead of flint. Jade would make it more functional, or the sapphire group stones.
Have you ever had any other discoveries like this? Note stashed in case or in handgun itself. Some kind of inscription that had to be deciphered?
Very cosy this. I should really watch it and read the chat with a glass or three of mulled wine!
That was great!
Im with the cameraman,that was so close to being a epic moment in history 😅
Have you done a history of 19th century American firearms in Europe? I've always wondered if they were popular over here?
OG Goat Gun.
When he first sat down I thought thats it on his lapel !
Come now, Johnathan. Every gun collector knows that Wilson was the gun maker for Tom Thumb, duelist extraordinaire. Calls himself a firearms expert "wanders off muttering". 😜
Once again the editors’s putting in a shift 😂
I wonder if this is like those mini Japanese matchlock pistols, or even those pin fire keyring pistols in the US. Something that could fire, if you really want to, but otherwise just to show off with
Come on Jonathan, from the size and the face on the butt cap, it must be a commission for Baron Greenback! Crikey DM!
I must have missed that episode :)
Will you ever do a video on the Farquhar-Hill?
I can pretty much guarantee that I will...
@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries 🙌
They're actually a matched pair, but someone left one in their pocket when they put it through the wash.
I feel a re-watch of Plunkett and Mcleane coming on…
A classic.
One wonders if something like this would have been a, show-off, for a watchmaker. Or, a somewhat functional thingy, to light up a cigar...
It's a funny thing, Jonathan of 2124 would find that paper far more interesting.
I guess it could work for pest control... in theory, or gnome warfare.
4:25 So daddy flintlock went to the store to buy cigarettes and never came home, leaving poor mommy flintlock and baby flintlock all alone?
Some would say it's of average size
Flintlock Kolibri
Why not do an episode on miniature firearms
We only have a few, unfortunately.
Careful, you could have someone's eye out with that.
What, with eyestrain?
Anyone else say "I don't believe it!" at the mention of Richard Wilson?
Was it made by Colibri,perhaps?
Looks like that gat had a gitten.
Is it actually a miniature, or is it just very far away?
I REALLY wanted to do the Father Ted thing but it was technically beyond us on the day (only poor Josh running three cameras and sound!). I should have at least referenced it though...
@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries but would ye be Ted or Dougal?
@@dannyw1579 Some days you're Ted, some you're Dougal. And occasionally, Jack.
I'd bet it was a gag gift, from somebody with a lot of money and a sick and twisted mind. Imagine:
"Happy Birthday! I got you a pistol, just like you wanted. One of those new ones with the threaded barrel." (Pulls out full-size pistol case and hands it over)
"REALLY?! AWESOME!" (Excitedly opens case to reveal what's TECHNICALLY a fully functioning pistol) "Oh, COME ON!"
This is the kind of weapon I imagine Mister uses in Critical Role C3 that's loaded with flaming poo shots (he's a fire elemental monkey)
A Kolibri before Kolibri 😅
Cute. CUTE!
I want 1.
When in doubt, pinky out!
It just felt right...
😎
That's seriously cute
No captions for this vid? Or is that youtube messing up
We've recently changed the codec/bitrate of the videos to deliver the highest quality but it may take TH-cam a bit longer to process, hopefully they'll be added soon.
EDIT: Looks like they still haven't been generated yet, so we've added some manually until then.
@@RoyalArmouriesMuseum And the quality is definitely here to be seen. It helps a lot when there are such tiny details as here.
@@F1ghteR41 We appreciate that!
Pin this one to your other lapel, sorted :)
I choose to believe this was commissioned for some jokesters pet monkey, you can't disprove my theory!
Folks. Those "decorations". I hope that was last minute for the video. LoL
Jonathan's pretending that it can't be fired because the sear is worn, the flint might not spark, the powder won't be fine enough, every excuse he can think of. In reality it's because nobody at the Armouries is confident in firing such a powerful pistol, and they're not even sure they have a range that can handle the blast.
Polly Pocket Pistol
What is this?
a flintlock for ants?!
For an army of mouse
Child’s?
Too small even for a child to actually 'use' - and probably too expensive... But perhaps for a wealthy one...
What is this? A gun for ants?
No expense spared on the Christmas decorations.
:)
But wait!....what's this I see rolled up and stuffed inside the tiny barrel of the tiny pistol! ?.....an exact tiny copy of the piece of paper with the note from the previous owner, stating it belonged to his grandfather!! 😮
You should wear it as a lapel badge! 😊
Oh....and by the way, a pleading request: I have synesthesia and the colour of those awful gloves you wear, give me the equivalent of an ice cream headache!! Please change them as it makes watching your lovely videos unbearable!
Purple was ok.....black? Anything other than that horrid greenish turquoise blue nightmare! 😂😢
I'm sorry to hear that - we had complaints about the blue (they are actually light blue) gloves previously and they tear far too easily. I would love black but it would make the guns/parts harder to see :( Is there any consistency between the experience of sufferers? If we found a different colour would it affect someone else as badly? Probably not a fair question to ask.
This was clearly made for training your 1-year old child in firearms handling. Duh! 😁😁😁🤘