Flintlock pistol by Jo Murdoch, iron engraved with silver, Scottish, 1775-1800

One of a pair of pistols, signed on the locks 'Io Murdoch' of Doune. The scroll ended butt is inlaid with interlacing scrolls and two oval panels of silver. The pricker and trigger have silver button finials. The barrel is fluted at the breech, octagonal at the muzzle and engraved with foliate scrolls.

Bequeathed by Major Victor Alexander Farquharson

From the 17th century, gunsmiths in Scotland produced pistols that were unique to the country. Made entirely of steel, elaborately engraved and with distinctively-shaped butts, they acquired the name 'Highland pistols' because many of the towns where they were made - Tain, Inverness, Brechin, Perth, Doune - skirted the southern and eastern edges of the Highlands. Their market was international and their reputation legendary. A Scottish pistol reputedly fired the first shot in the American War of Independence.
Scottish guns with wooden stocks survive from the 17th century but more robust, all-steel examples are first associated with the shop of Thomas Caddell in Doune. Five generations of Thomas Caddells and the gunsmiths they trained as apprentices - Campbell, Christie, Murdoch - expanded and dominated the trade until the 19th century. They sold pistols to local aristocrats, to Highland regiments and to foreign royalty. Peter the Great of Russia and Louis XIV of France both owned examples.

Scottish pistols were sold in pairs, sometimes with their mechanisms on opposite sides for use in each hand. A long belt hook enabled them to be worn against the body or tucked inside a plaid, protected against the weather. Their butts are also characteristic. Early examples are shaped like fish-tails, lemons and hearts. The most common, the ram's horn or scroll butt, is associated with pistols from Doune. These were solid, self-contained pistols that could be drawn quickly, but their button triggers, unprotected by a guard, risked an accidental shot.

Weapons are often dissociated with art. However, they were influenced by the same design sources as other art forms including architecture, sculpture, goldsmiths' work, stained glass and ceramics. These sources had to be adapted to awkwardly shaped devices required to perform complicated technical functions and, in the case of guns, withstand explosive forces. Armour and weapons were collected as works of art as much as military tools and were presented as gifts to honour ambassadors and other dignitaries. Scottish pistols were weapons of self-possession as much as self-defence. Added silver plaques displayed coats-of-arms and, by the 1740s, lock, stock and barrel were engraved with Celtic ornament or stylised foliage. By the Act of Proscription, 1746, any 'side pistol, gun, or other warlike weapon' was prohibited along with traditional Highland dress, an attempt to stamp out loyalty to the Stuarts. Some pistols proclaimed political or allegiance with symbols hidden in their decoration.

By the late 18th-century the heyday of these guns had passed. 'Scottish pistols' carried by the 42nd Highlanders were actually made in Birmingham by a gunsmith called Isaac Bissell. Fifty years later the romantic portrayal of traditional Scottish culture, 'Costume of the Clans', lampooned the pistols still in production as 'coarse pop guns, resembling more the tin toys of a bazaar than the weapons of an army.' 'Costume pistols', much smaller than the traditional Scottish pistols, became a term of derision for a gun whose primary function had become an accessory for Highland dress.

Flintlocks in Operation

Firearms combined virtuoso craftsmanship with high quality engineering. This gun is fitted with a flintlock firing mechanism. The flintlock was less complicated and more reliable than a wheel-lock. Its simplicity encouraged the development of smaller, lighter guns.

The flintlock was fired when the flint held in the cock, struck the steel pan (frizzen) opposite, causing sparks to ignite the priming powder. A detailed description of loading and firing a flintlock gun follows:

Most flintlock guns were loaded from the muzzle with gunpowder and lead shot. These are pushed into the breech of the barrel with the ramrod. The ramrod is stored in a slot beneath the barrel.

An arm, or cock, at the back of the lock holds a sharp piece of flint. This is moved part of the way backwards until it clicks into position at half-cock. It has a safety catch to prevent the gun being fired accidentally.

On top of the lock is a flash pan which is charged with priming powder, a fine powder that ignites easily. The flash pan is opened by lifting the cover, called a frizzen. When the flash pan is filled with a measured dose of priming powder, the frizzen is then closed presenting a pan-shaped steel surface towards the cocked flint.

The cock is pulled back further, from half-cock to full-cock, releasing its safetly catch. When the trigger is pulled, the cock holding the flint springs forwards. The flint strikes the frizzen, opening it to reveal the priming powder, and causing sparks to fly when it strikes the hard steel surface. The sparks ignite the priming powder in the flash pan. The flash passes through a vent or touchhole into the breech of the barrel and ignites the main powder charge, and the gun fires.

From the 17th century, gunsmiths in Scotland produced pistols that were unique to the country. Made entirely of steel, elaborately engraved and with distinctively-shaped butts, they acquired the name 'Highland pistols' because many of the towns where they were made - Tain, Inverness, Brechin, Perth, Doune - skirted the southern and eastern edges of the Highlands. Their market was international and their reputation legendary. A Scottish pistol reputedly fired the first shot in the American War of Independence.

M.653-1927