Object Title

Flintlock breech-loading rifle - Ferguson type by Egg

Date

1776

Object Number

XII.11209

Provenance

Purchased at auction from Christies, King Street, London, 9 November 2000, lot 69, with the aid of a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Previously with a private collector, who acquired it from Pitfour, the Ferguson family home in Scotland

Physical Description

Engraved 'D Egg 15 London' on the barrel. Employing a breech screw action. Fitted with a bayonet lug

Dimensions

Dimensions: Overall length: 47.362 in (1203 mm), Barrel length: 32 in (808 mm), Weight: weight: 3500g (7.5 lbs)

Firearms/Artillery

Serial Number None visible

Calibre

.56 in

Associations

Places Britain

Events '1776', National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, 14 April-2 October 1976, no.404; The Game Fair, Blenheim Palace, 28-30 July 2000.

Bibliographic References

Richard Akehurst, 'The World of Guns', illus. p.17

The National Maritime Museum, '1776' pp.158-9.

The American Rifleman, August 1971, cover illus.

Notes

A similar rifle, pre 1777, are preserved in the Morristown National Park, New Jersey, USA. Later examples, post 1777, are in the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, USA (a militia example) and in the National Army Museum (a militia example). Another is at the Weapons Collection, Warminster.
This is probably the best example of the pre 1777 military type Ferguson. Another military-style sporting rifle by Durs Egg, of Ferguson type, with a permanently-attached gutter-shaped or apple-corer type bayonet sliding in special channels fixed to the barrel, is in the collections of the Museum and Art Gallery, Kelvingrove, Glasgow. An octagonal-barrel Ferguson sporting rifle by Durs Egg is Lot 1 in the Greg Martin auction of the Stanley Diefenthal collection of firearms, San Francisco, February 3, 2003. The National Museums of Scotland hold two Ferguson rifles, M.1959.316 marked with the name of David Ross of Kindeace, of either the 21st or 71st Regiments of Foot, and H.LH.389, made by Francis Innes of Edinburgh, with ivory-tipped wooden rammer.

Information

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