The Friends had the winning bid for this “Dog-Lock Musketoon” offered by Olympia Auctions in London. And we are happy to say the musketoon has reached its new home in Beaufort safely!
This is a remarkable piece, built at the same time as the musketoon gun tube recovered from the wreck of the Queen Anne’s Revenge currently in the Q.A.R. Exhibit at the Maritime Museum in Beaufort. These guns rarely come on the market so we feel very fortunate to be able to pair this great find with the barrel from the wreck and display both with other weapons recovered from Blackbeard’s flagship.
Our weapons case is currently being rearranged and updated. Once complete, the “new” Dog-Lock Musketoon will be available for viewing in our Queen Anne’s Revenge exhibition, hopefully by the end of the year!
DESCRIPTION OF THE DOG-LOCK MUSKETOON:
A fine, early, brass-barreled English dog lock musketoon by T. Banister of London, late 17th century.
Has a massive barrel stepped with a ring behind the flared muzzle. The breech has a pronounced ridge, which has been notched to form a back-sight, and a plain iron tang. The barrel has London proof marks and Banister’s barrel smith’s mark.. The flat, beveled lock is signed T. Banister, has a pointed tail and is retained by three side-screws. There is a separate pan, and the dog-catch engages with the back of the bellied ring-neck cock. The full stock has a raised apron around the barrel tang and raised side-plate area. Brass mounts include pierced foliate scroll side-plate, thin butt-plate with slender tapering tang secured by iron tacks, and single baluster brass ramrod-pipe. The trigger-guard is iron with rounded finial, and a scrolled trigger. The ramrod is wood.
Thomas I Banister was apprenticed to Robert Silke and turned over to Robert Brooke in 1668. Free of the Gunmaker’s Company in 1676 he presented his proof piece in 1678. He was Contractor to Ordnance between 1680 and 1707, and to the Hudson’s Bay Company between 1684 and 1701. Recorded as ‘Extremely ill and destitute of all necessarys’ he was given a pension by the Gunmaker’s Company in 1728.
