Generous gift

[Willem Parel]

Yesterday we visit friends who moved to another house.
And by the time we were leaving she came up with some presents for me.
There was a plastic bag with very nice minerals and stones and I was very surprised and thankful.
But suddenly she came up with a towel with something in it, when I unwrapped the towel there was a beautiful gun in it.
She was very persisting and want me to have this gun, I was overwhelmed by this offer and I was telling her this was way to much to give away .
But then again she was very persisting and I took this very very special present as a warm handed gift from a good friend and I will cherish it.

But I want to share this gift here as well and I have some questions about the history and the gunmaker.
There is a gunmakers name on it and this is: Wogden London.
My friend told me the gun was mostly ment for protecting stagecoaches or something like that.
But since guns are very rare in the Netherlands and it's only alowed to own antique guns I dont know much about gun history etc.
So if there are members who can tell me something more about the gun, the maker (I did some Google search) it's much appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

[Cloudy]

Just lovely!

 

[Arnaud Van Tilburgh]

That is cool Willem, now at least you have a gun to engrave one day when you are ready for it

arnaud

 

[Phil Coggan]

Will,

Wogdon traded from the 1770's to 1802 as far as I remember, he also traded as Wogdon & Barton he was a high end gunmaker.

I am a bit suspicious about the gun, I think the barrel is by Wogdon but it's been put on another gun. Wogdons work is superior to the gun you have and he would also have signed the lock which in itself looks like a replacement.

I made a copy of a Wogdon & Barton dueller in the 80's, all scratch built, it has a set trigger and a sear detent, here it is.

Phil

 

[Marrinan]

Willem, What a generous gift, Reminds me of the old Errol Flynn pirate movies where they used them in repelling boarding parties. In the photo of the lock it looks like there may be well worn engraving on the hammer to me.

Phil, beautiful gun. As I recall you got into engraving because you could not find anyone to engrave these correct? This one looks to be 200 years old to me. I bought a kit "vest pocket" to build some years ago but the locks were so poorly made I never did anything with it. It is in a box somewhere.

Arnaud, Absolutely Not!

Thanks for sharing- Fred

 

[mtgraver]

Willem
A wonderful gift but I will agree with Phil, it's a "parts" gun, using old parts with maybe a new piece of wood. The workmanship definitely doesn't match to an original Wogdon, great barrel with signature!
Phil excellent copy my friend, one day I will have to build that Mortimer pistol from your drawings ...... it's on the list!
Mark

 

[Arnaud Van Tilburgh]

That is a nice one too Phil, I didn't know you make guns as well.


Fred, yes I know this isn't one that need to be engraved as it is antique, I was just joking to Willem, as their law on weapons is even less tolerant than the Belgium law.

There was a time some 20 years ago one could buy all guns without a license, only hand weapons like revolvers and pistols you could not. But you could buy one and shorten both the barrel and the stock, just an inventive way to sell hand weapons.

Another way that still works, make one yourself. Here is one I made over 30 years ago, sure not that high end like Phil's one or the one Willem got as a present.

arnaud

 

[DakotaDocMartin]

Arnaud,

That looks like a copied version of the Colt Thuer single shot:

 

[Willem Parel]

Thank you all for the information this far, @ Phil, is the WogdOn you discribe the same maker as WogdEn as it is engraved on the gun?

 

[Phil Coggan]

Sorry Willem, I didn't see the "E" the Wogdon I spoke of is the famous one, I don't know one with an "E". The gun looks wrong and is probably made up of different parts, some maybe modern.
Something I forgot to mention, check the barrel out for proof marks

Phil, beautiful gun. As I recall you got into engraving because you could not find anyone to engrave these correct?
Fred

Fred, I didn't know any engravers, I built the guns because I had a passion for flinters and couldn't afford to buy them!

Phil excellent copy my friend, one day I will have to build that Mortimer pistol from your drawings ...... it's on the list!
Mark

Mark, what are you waiting for, it's a beautiful pistol.

This is one of the very first pistols I made, it's going back, probably late 70's, it has a lot to be desired The engraving was done with a tool that didn't really resemble anything by todays standards, in fact I just filed something up that would just barely cut as I didn't know what engraving tools looked like, as far as I remember, I used an ordinary hammer for the same reason! I was in two minds whether to show it but it's part of how I became an engraver so here it is!
By the way, the engraving was copied from an existing Derringer, the gun was copied from the same picture out of a magazine but I spelled the name wrong!



Just one more, a copy of an Adams revolver, I borrowed the original, drew up the plans, which I still have somewhere. Everything was cut out with a hacksaw and filed to shape, no shaping machines etc. The only thing that was machined was the cylinder.

 

[Marrinan]

Sorry Phil, I thought I remembered from one of your biographical post you had mentioned building flinters and needing to teach yourself engraving to put on the finishing touches. My mistake and I apologize for the error. Fred

 

[monk]

whatever- it certainly looks to be a keeper to me. a lovely gift for sure. imagine that stuffed with some rock salt, some pebbles and perhaps a couple of nails for effect ! might make a bloke change his mind in a hurry staring down the bore of that gun. thanks for the fotos and info from all who commented on this gun.

 

[Southtexas]

http://www.renovateyourworld.com/Sm...ols_by_Robert_Wogden_of_London_-p2190617.html
this help any? showed up in a search of wogden, londen...

 

[Roger Bleile]

Phil,

I am astounded that you made that Adams revolver from scratch! It is one thing to replicate a single shot muzzle loader by hand...but a high quality revolver! Your multitude of talents are exceptional.

Roger

 

[Dave London]

Dittos Roger, it is amazing what you can do with a hacksaw,files and stones
Thanks Phil Great work

 

[Phil Coggan]

Thank you Roger and Dave, when I get a minute i'll strip it and take some pics, maybe open another thread?

As for the Wogd"E"n link, i'm sure that's a mis-spelling as I have seen quite a few originals, in fact I borrowed the one I copied from.

Phil

 

[Dave London]

The WOGDEN is may be a counterfeit trying to cash in on the famous makers name. MTC
But a cool blunderbuss anyway, and a very nice gift

 

[Willem Parel]

But a cool blunderbuss anyway, and a very nice gift

This is all that counts to me, whether it would be a high quality gun or a poor quality gun, i only try to find some more history.
And even it would be an assembled gun from different parts, to me this isn't that important, the value for me is the same.
Even the fact it could be an assembled gun, it is still a part of the history of the gun.
Thank you all very much for the input, I am still open for suggestions.

 

[Southtexas]

from that short search online... seems there was a Wogdon and a Wogden about the same time in London. One was Richard, the other Robert. There are several citations about each online. Wogdon appearing to be obviously more famous. All it took was a few minutes searching to find this info...

 

[Willem Parel]

All it took was a few minutes searching to find this info...

Yes I did soms searching too as I said in my first writing in this topic but I was very curious and I expect to get some more information here.
So thank you for this search als well!