Percussion Gun

...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

ObjectNumber: NG-MC-729

Flintlock muzzle-loading gun converted to a percussion, with smooth bore.

The barrel, with a date stamp of 1818, has five flat sides at the chamber, a nipple, and in addition is marked with crossed anchors; where the stock begins, it has a sight. The lock is a modified flintlock: the cock is replaced by a percussion hammer, the pan is sawn off, pan cover and spring are removed. The gun has a leather gunsling; the ramrod is missing. On the butt it has an indistinct red lacquer stamp. The socket bayonet has a blade of triangular section, and a leather sheath with a brass end button and belt button.

Obreen describes this weapon as a sea service musket of 1830.¹¹J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 729. Since in the land service, it was not until 1841 that flintlock weapons were modified for percussion ignition, this claim is, on the face of it, unlikely. However, in 1828, a trial was made with a number of guns modified for percussion, which were used in the Dutch West Indies. It is therefore possible that the Navy might have obtained a few examples. This gun was called the percussion gun N° 2, in contrast to the percussion gun N° 1 of 1848, which was designed as a percussion weapon from the outset. The length of the barrel of the sea service percussion gun N° 2 differed slightly from that of the land service N° 2 pattern. Gun and bayonet were found separately, but since they fit perfectly, they have now been brought together.

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 729; J.D. Jansen and G.R. Hof, ‘De bewapening van het Nederlandse leger in het tijdvak 1813-1840’, De wapenverzamelaar 4 (1966), pp. 3-24 and ‘De bewapening van het Nederlandse leger in het tijdvak 1840-1867’, De wapenverzamelaar 5 (1967), pp. 3-10, vol. 2, pp. 4, 10; R.T.W. Kempers, Antieke vuurwapens, Bussum 1973, p. 112

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Percussion Gun, Netherlands, 1818', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244543