• Joseph Manton Shotgun
• Joseph Manton Serial Numbers Online
• Joseph Manton Guns For Sale
• Joseph Manton Serial Numbers By Name
• Joseph Manton Serial Numbers Doreen

A nice gun for you today! Derek brought a gun that belongs to a friend of his for me to cast my eye over, so with his consent, I will put a few photos on the web and we can enjoy a little specualtion about the gun together!

It’s a high quality percussion gun signed Joseph Manton on locks and barrel and with the serial number 5692 on the underside of the barrels, the breech block, the inside of both locks and the tang of the trigger guard. By the Manton book that serial number belongs to 1812 ( this gun is not in the book), still in the flintlock era although coming up to the tubelock and pellet lock transition period before the caplock, which this is by the usage in the Manton book. Its about 22 bore double with 30 inch barrels but without the elevator rib that Jo Manton patented before this date (? or a small one?). So it looks as if it is a conversion involving new locks and new breeching, or that it has been renumbered or is from a period later when his numbering MAY have gone haywire. There are a lot of interesting clues in the gun if you can bear to go through them;-

These pistols number amongst the last pieces manufactured by the firm of Joseph Manton & Son before the company was sold to Charles and Henry Egg in late 1838 and have quick aiming dovetailed blade front and u-notch rear sights, '- -JOSEPH MANTON & SON, 6 HOLLES ST, CAVENDISH SQUARE, LONDON. Oregon Drivers License Number Generator. (Actually his account was written in cryptic form. Lot 506 - 23 Sep 2010, LOT DETAIL Full Catalogue Entry, JOSEPH MANTON, LONDON A FINE CASED 12-BORE DOUBLE-BARRELLED PERCUSSION SPORTING GUN, serial no. 6391, £2000 - 3000. Sold for £2,000.

1) It has the cocks with removable hammers – a follow-on from pellet locks and used around 1828.

2) What are those safety catches in front of the cocks doing on a shotgun? (they engage in a slot cut in the back of the cock when its at half cock – I think they are a considerably later feature.

3) If its a conversion the ‘bolsters’ on the barrels above the locks look odd??

4) In addition to the sliding safetys on the cocks there is a grip safety – but it is engraved John Blisset Patent even though Jo Manton claimed to have invented it. There is a burr at the backof the slot that suggests it may be a retrofit. I can’t see Manton putting a grip safety with someone elses name on it!

5) The barrel wording is ‘Joseph Manton’s New Invention by His Majesty’s PATENT’ – a form of words that he appears to have used between 1812 and 1816 and not at any other time? It may have a slightly elevated rib – Manton’s recent Patent – I don’t know what constitutes ‘elevated’.

6) The numbering on the barrel looks as if it may have been restamped after previous numbers were dressed out – possibly also the numbers on the breech plugs. One breech plug is a bit misaligned.

7) It has two sets of CP proof marks on the barrel – one set looking as if they have been dressed down.

8) Everthing looks OK from on top although the breech plug doesn’t align perfectly with the rib – but the engraving IS continuous across the joint.

9) The locks have the number 5692 very clearly stamped on them. The trigger guard tang also has the number 5692 engraved on it and looks original.

Joseph Manton Shotgun

10) The locks have the classic Joseph Manton ‘sea monster’ engraving by Gumbrell that was seen on his guns around 1820 – 1828? Oviously the front safety catches were not intended when the locks were made and engraved.

Now we can begin the speculation if you are still with me!

A good point to start is the locks –clearly made by Joseph Manton around 182X (on grounds of percussion caplock, engraving and style) or so and clearly numbered for 5692 and so intended for an 1812 gun of his. The locks have the sliding safety catches which can’t realistically be contemporary with their manufacture(?) but almost certainly a later modification but are unusual on shotguns, being much more usual on rifles, (and introduced at a later date then the 1820s? – maybe 1830 – 1850?). If he had wanted to put a safety catch on a gun in 1828 he would almost certainly have used one behind the cock intercepting the tumbler not the cock itself as on pistols of that era. Joe Manton didn’t make very many rifles. When you add in the grip safety, which looks like a retrofit on account of Manton claiming to have invented it and it having another gunmaker’s name on it (grip safetys were not in fashion for long as they are pretty unreliable) The grip and cock safety together might suggest that it was possibly converted from a rifle (unlikely) but more likely that it had a very cautious owner at some time – possibly at conversion but probably some time after – possibly in two phases, grip safety and then sliding safety. The condition of the blueing of the sliders suggests that the gun wasn’t used much if at all after they were fitted ? The gun has not had a lot of wear at any time – maybe some prior to conversion, but relatively little use as a percussion gun as there is almost no corrosion around the nipples on the breeches.

The stock and furniture seem OK for 1812, and the number 5692 on the trigger guard tang is almost certainly original so I’m inclined to put it all down as original – the engraving throughout is consistent in quality and design and could date from a few years earlier than the Sea Monster lock engraving.

The barrels are interesting – the signature etc is right for the serial number date of 1812 ( used up to 1816). There is no gold or platinum stamp on the breeches, but they are very small and maybe not wide enough to take his stamp. It looks as if they have been struck off and renumbered and rebrowned and reproofed but I believe that the gun has been untouched in the same family for many years and it is quite possible that the work was done when the gun was converted or when one or other of the safety devices were added – it is almost certainly not a recent rebrowning. While it is possible to speculate that the gun was at one time a rifle and has been rebarreled, one would have to allow that the present barrel was contemporary with the original 1812 date or else re-signed in perfect imitation of the earlier form.

My current guess is that the gun was built as a flintlock 22 bore shotgun in 1812 and carefully converted by Joseph Manton to caplock in about 1828 (say 1825 – 1830). At some point it was owned by a hyper cautious owner who had the safety grip added – maybe by John Blisset himself ( he became Blisset and Son in 1867). It is possible that being very cautious the owner had the barrels reproofed at that time or they may have been done at the time of conversion, although Manton did not always send guns to the proofhouse – he preferred his own hydraulic test. I incline to think that the sliding safety is somewhat later than the grip safety ( I’ve only seen it on guns of 1840 to 1860) and so may have been added later.

So its tentative history ( a guess!) ;

1812 made by Joseph Manton as a 22 bore flintlock shotgun

1828 ish converted by Joseph Manton to caplock

1830 ish grip safety added – ?by John Blisset? date based loosly on level of wear. & reproofed?

(1840 -1850) ?? front safety catches added and reproofed(?) Not much used thereafter?

Joseph Manton Serial Numbers Online

I’m sure I’ll be proved wrong – I will take the gun to Geoff Walker at ‘The Flintlock Collection’ as he knows his Mantons much better than I do.

In 2005, Nigel Brown, the legal advisor and secretary to the Gun Trade Association and team member of the British Association for Shooting and Conversation, published British Gunmakers: Volume 1, London. Rightfully considered one of the authoritative books on British gunmaking data, what gun would you have chosen to adorn the cover? Perhaps a Boss and Co, one of which this company sold for over USD$100,000 as recently as April of 2019, widely considered one of the finest doubles ever produced and quoted by the King of England as saying that he did not possess the funds to shoot a Boss & Co? Charles Lancaster produced a number of fine sporting arms, and a pair of over/under double rifles brought USD$78,000. Purdey is also a viable contender, one of their .410 Sidelocks brought as much as USD$50,000 in these halls. So, which all of these masterful makers, why did Nigel Brown choose to showcase a flintlock side-by-side Manton shotgun? Perhaps because Manton is one of the most influential gunmakers, not just in terms of sporting arms, but perhaps of all time. This article explores Manton’s history and his prodigy as a gunsmith and examines a firearm in our upcoming May Extraordinary Auction, one of the better Manton flintlock pistols.

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Joseph Manton was born April 6^th, 1766 to John Manton and Mary Gildon and in 1780 apprenticed as a gunmaker to his brother, John Manton, out of 6 Dover Street, London. It became increasingly clear that Joseph became the superior of the two gunsmiths between himself and his brother and in 1789 Joseph struck out in his own opening his own shop in Mayfair, on Oxford Street where he built quality guns. While building guns, Manton also spent a considerable amount of time experimenting with rifling, wadding, ignition, and any other system he could conceivably use to improve gun performance. Chief among his improvements was the tubelock system. As opposed to filling a pan with gunpowder and using a flint and pan to generate the spark and ignition, Manton developed a small-contained tube full of fulminate that, when crushed by a hammer, would discharge and provide ignition. The tubelock proved immediately exceedingly popular as the fulminate ignited much more quickly than flintlocks, providing an exceptionally fast lock time, reducing the amount of deviation the shooter could introduce into a moving gun. The Austrian army temporarily retained the tubelock, but eventually exchanged it for the percussion lock. Perhaps the greatest issue Manton’s tubelock had was where if the hammer did not adequately crush the tube of fulminate, the energy would expend into the vent and out of it, potentially wounding the shooter. Still, this was a step up from the Forsyth scentbottle lock (who, incidentally, successfully sued Manton for his use of the newly developed fulminate, which Forsyth had successfully attempted to patent-hog in Britain.)

Manton’s developments brought the attention of the British military, who wanted him to develop cannon more accurate than current manufacture. Manton agreed and developed a system using a detached wooden cup, shell, powder, and projectile that married together just short of the rifling, a primitive form of a cartridge, and a design similar to which the Reich would use with the Big Bertha Cannon. Manton would get into a rather expensive and lengthy legal debate with the military over payment. Manton wanted a lump sum payment equivalent to approximately three and a half million pounds, while the army wanted to pay him on a per shell basis (at a rate of approximately 0.13 pence per shell). During the litigation, the army purchased the wooden cups from Manton, but made their own shells, depriving Manton of both his lump sum and his per capita rate.

Despite the problems that plagued Manton, it would be disingenuous for me to imply that Manton was anything other than wildly well regarded in his own time. His guns sold at up to 70 guineas a piece (approximately 70 oz of gold, or well over USD$25,000 at this time of writing), and Manton himself was quoted as saying that he would increase the cost of his guns by five guineas every year and that people would still purchase his guns, they were so well regarded. Other important developments by Manton (or, at least, claimed by him), include platinum lined touch holes that resisted corrosion, gravitating cocks that would kept the cocks back when loading a muzzle loader and preventing an accidental discharge during loading, the coating of lead pellets in quicksilver in order to prevent barrel fouling, and numerous other upgrades to triggers, pans, sears, and any other conceivable part of a firearm. While it appears that Manton may have been a bit of a patent hog himself, even suing his own brother at one point, it is undeniable that Manton pioneered a massive number of important upgrades.

A clever reader may, at this point, have begun to ask themselves why I chose Purdey, Lancaster, and Boss to be competitors to Manton. There are a number of other wonderful shotgun makers coming out of London today, and Brown’s books lists many of them. The truth is that Manton’s contribution to the shooting world as we know it today also extended to training the following generation of sporting gun makers. Purdey, Lancaster, and Boss all worked for Manton. Also counted amongst Manton’s friends was Colonel Hawker, another noted sportsman, who arranged for a tombstone when Manton died celebrating his life and can still be viewed today.

This brings us to the gun in question that prompted this very article. Lot 1112 is a flintlock pistol made by Joseph Manton. Given the serial number, Manton made the gun circa 1802, making it a rather late flintlock but still well before the introduction of the tubelock. A hooked and patent breech allows for more efficient ignition of the charge, and is deeply struck with Manton’s hallmark. A roller bearing frizzen, waterproof pan, push on safety, and masterful execution of filing and engraving round out the features of the breech and lock. The stock is checkered at wrist and runs all the way down to the blued buttcap, itself also engraved. Adding some mystique to the piece is the silver thumbpiece with heavily worn initials, presumably for a previous owner.

Joseph Manton Guns For Sale

The pistol is cased in mahogany with the accessories that a pistol shooter would need for his firearm: loading rod and mallet, patches and flint, oil, and a very clever ball/powder/patch combination flask made by Dixon and Sons. Importantly, and the inspiration for this article, is the paper label in the lid, which is an aged Manton trade label with a handwritten note reading “Joseph Manton died, June 29. 1835, 6 Kensal Green, No. 189”. This is in fact Manton’s death date and where he was buried (amusingly enough, in a location that can be seen today from Holland and Holland’s factory.) Evidently, a previous owner of this fine firearm took note of the death of the legendary Manton and recorded it on one of his own products. Others also took note of Manton’s death, including his longtime friend Colonel Harker, mentioned earlier in this article, who wrote Manton’s epitaph, singing his praises as “the greatest artist in firearms that ever the world produced…the founder and father of the modern gun trade and as a most scientific inventor in other departments.”

Joseph Manton Serial Numbers By Name

A recent discussion with a friend led to a conversation on the rapid progression of firearms technology, and it would be woe to mention that progression of technology without mentioning Manton. From frizzens and pans, to rifling and wadding, and the very bullets fired, Manton tried his best to improve every aspect of firearms, and today is rightfully lauded as perhaps one of the most important pioneers of firearms, not only for his own developments, but also as laying the foundation for future bespoke gunsmiths.

Joseph Manton Serial Numbers Doreen

– Eric Wagner