Antique Arms & Militaria

A Fine 18th Century Historic Blunderbuss With Brass Flared Mouth Barrel, Fine Walnut Stock and Engraved Brass Furniture. By Griffin and Tow London Circa 1775. One Of England's Great Gunsmith Partnerships

Joseph Griffin opened his business in 1739 in Bond Street London, and went into partnership with Tow in 1773 to form the well known gunmakers Griffin and Tow.

This is an incredible brass barreled blunderbuss, of great age, around 250 years old, and with immense character. It has clearly seen combat service and use, but it is now just so beautiful still as an original artifact of the American Revolutionary War period, by one of the great gun partnerships in Georgian England. It has accumulated fabulous patination on the both the stock and barrel through the centuries of cleaning and polishing, interspersed with close combat use in the war, in fact, probably several wars, and potentially dozens of battles, either at sea, or on land, in its working life of around 80 years.

During this use period it has had close quarter combat injury, likely caused by its use as a club, after its load was discharged and their was no time for re-loading. It is around the stock, at the butt, and it has seen a typical, contemporary 'field service' combat repair, probably by the ship's carpenter, that has actually acquired its own age patination, through constant polishing. The barrel is excellent, with Joseph Griffin's own proof stamp, between the regular proof-house stamps, with numerous very small combat service markings, likely from sword or cutlass impacts. If you observe picture 10 in the gallery, you will note at the top portion of the painting, a sailor about to fire his brass barrel blunderbuss into the boarding enemy, and that sailor is using his blunderbuss as a club, holding the barrel as its handle.

In the 18th century, naval forces, privateers, and pirates used the blunderbuss as a short-range, large-bore combat weapon designed primarily for chaotic close-quarters boarding actions.

Naval blunderbusses often featured brass barrels instead of iron or steel because brass resisted corrosion and was practically impervious to salty sea spray.

The iconic trumpet-shaped muzzle was not actually designed to scatter shot widely, but rather to act as a built-in funnel for quickly pouring in black powder and lead balls while on a rolling ship deck.

While military loads typically used lead balls, swan shot (large pellets), or iron slugs, sailors could improvise by loading with rock salt for psychological effect without the likely-hood of fatal injury being inflicted

For use as boarding weapons they were ssued to naval officers, marines, and pirate crews, standard shoulder-stock blunderbusses easily cleared enemy decks during intense close-quarters fighting.

The Blunderbuss (born of the Dutch word "Donderbus", appropriately meaning "Thunder Pipe" or "Thunder Gun") came to prominence in the early part of the 18th Century (1701-1800) and was more akin to the modern day shotgun than a "long gun" musket or heavy pistol of the time. As such, she excelled in close-in fighting, be it within the confines of naval warfare or walled nature of the urban environment, where her spread of shot could inflict maximum damage to targets at close ranges. Its manageable size, coupled with its spread shot, ensured some level of accuracy for even the novice user and its appearance was rather intimidating to those unfortunate enough to be staring down the business end. As with modern firearms, the Blunderbuss also made for an excellent security-minded weapon and soon found popularity amongst all matter of operators - military, civilian and, of course, criminal parties - by the middle of the 1700s. Even George Washington championed the Blunderbuss for Continental Army "Dragoon" units of the burgeoning American military as opposed to the carbine this being nothing more than a full-featured long gun of lesser overall length, proving suitable for horse-mounted handling. In fact, the short-form version of the Blunderbuss came to be known as the "Dragon", giving rise to the term "Dragoon" for such gun-wielding cavalrymen. Dragoons went on to form specialized units of mounted infantrymen within their respective armies during the end of the 17th Century and into the middle of the 18th Century - in a way, becoming an evolutionary step of the fabled mounted knight of the Middle Ages. Their use of Dragons soon gave way to the widely-accepted carbine musket. The Blunderbuss was also known as the "Blunderbess" As with all our antique guns no license is required as they are all unrestricted antique collectables

Griffin and Tow was a prominent 18th-century London gunmaking partnership renowned for crafting high-quality flintlock sporting guns, officers' pistols, and blunderbusses.
Joseph Griffin began his independent gunmaking career in 1739 on Bond Street, London. He worked alongside his father until 1770 and built a strong reputation for producing exceptional flintlock firearms. Joseph Griffin entered into a partnership with an individual named Tow in 1773, officially establishing the firm Griffin and Tow.

The business operated out of London during the height of Georgian flintlock craftsmanship, active through the late 18th century (roughly spanning the 1740–1790 era when including Griffin's individual work before the partnership).
They specialized in fine flintlock weapons, including double-barrelled sporting shotguns, private officer pistols, and brass-barreled muzzleloading blunderbusses.
Surviving pieces from the firm, in the great museum collections today—often featuring intricately engraved brass or steel, and walnut stocks and are highly valued collector's items today.

Their operational history and specific surviving serial/named pieces were meticulously cataloged in the seminal 1989 text British Gunmakers: Messrs. Griffin and Tow and W. Bailes, 1740-1790 by W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back  read more

Code: 26310

Red Cross 'Shoots Itself In The Foot’ with Gun Maker Livery Co. The Worshipful Co. of Gunmakers Ban at Tower of London Charity Function. The Livery Companies Collectively Give 81 Million Pounds A Year To Charities.

Yes, as incredible as it may seem, the Gunmakers Co. Of Liveryman, The Worshipful Co. Of Gumakers, founded in 1637, are not welcome at a ‘Tower Of London’ Red Cross Fundraiser. The ‘Tower of London’ arms and armour collection, accumulated since the time of Henry VIIIth, is one of the largest and most important arms collections in the world. To us, it would be comparable to hosting a charity fund raiser at Guys Hospital in London, where surgeons would be excluded and unwelcome..

‘Pretty much all of the Masters have said, “Well, if you’re not willing to accept Masters of other companies, {The Worshipful Company of Gunmakers etc.} we’re not going to take part”

Copied Article By Richard Eden Daily Mail;

Four days during the war, it held Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess and – just over a decade later – psychopathic twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray.

But the Tower of London, home to the Crown Jewels and scene of innumerable executions, is now adding another page or two to its infamies – albeit, on this occasion, unwittingly.

For I can disclose that a charitable event that the Tower has hosted for many years – raising thousands of pounds for the Red Cross in the process – has fallen victim to political correctness.

Formerly known as ‘Jailed & Bailed’, but now prosaically renamed ‘Escape From The Tower’, the event is philanthropy with a pantomime flourish.

It sees – or used to see – Masters of various City of London livery companies ‘arrested’ by the City of London Police, taken to the Tower and, as one of livery company notes, ‘“tortured” with sponsored champagne and a splendid lunch’ until their fellow liverymen and women secure their release by raising a ‘bail payment’, often amounting to tens of thousands of pounds, with every penny going to the Red Cross.

But this year the Worshipful Company of Tobacco Pipe Makers was told by the Red Cross that ‘they couldn’t take part because they represented an “unethical” industry’, explains an eminent liveryman, adding that at least one other livery company was placed on a blacklist because of ‘links with the defence industry’.

I understand that this was the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers – one of the oldest livery companies, founded in 1637. ‘They actually test the guns that the police use,’ an appalled liveryman tells me.

The Red Cross, headed by Beatrice Butsana-Sita since 2023, seemingly exacerbated matters by sending out ‘a sort of clarifying note’, stating that, while ‘deeply grateful for the livery companies’ long-standing support’, it was aware of ‘a very small number of livery companies with direct public association with, or funding from, our excluded industries’.

This couldn’t have gone down worse. ‘Pretty much all of the Masters have said, “Well, if you’re not willing to accept Masters of other companies, we’re not going to take part”,’ says a liveryman from one of the companies which, collectively, give some £81million a year to charities.

‘Previously, there’s been a lot of support for the Red Cross. But, no pun intended, they’ve really shot themselves in the foot.’

The Red Cross assures me that it ‘greatly values the long-standing partnership and generosity of London’s livery companies’, adding: ‘We do not accept donations from a very small number of specific industries.

‘We are speaking directly with livery companies to provide clarification, answer questions and reaffirm how much we value their continued support.’

The Lanes Armoury comment.

‘Why even hold a charitable fund raiser at ‘The Tower of London’ if the ‘Gunmakers Liverymen’ are not welcome. It is beyond understanding and all sane rationale.

By RICHARD EDEN, DIARY EDITOR DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 00:59, 1 August 2026 | UPDATED: 07:57, 1 August 2026

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16020461/RICHARD-EDEN-Red-Cross-woke-ban-Tower-charity.html  read more

Code: 26311

An Original Ancient Greek Sword as Used by King Odysseus King of Ithaca, During The Siege Of Troy, And As incredibly Depicted in Homer's Poem The Iliad, and Homer's The Odyssey Named After Odysseus

One of two similar swords we acquired formerly from a collector of antiquities.
Naturally it cannot be assumed to have been used by the most famed character in Homer's iconic poetry, however, if he was real, this is exactly the sword he would likely have used, some 3200 years ago.


A wonderful original artifact of classical history, made and used by a Greek warrior from circa 1200 b.c. A Superb ancient Greek bronze age sword blade with fabulous areas of crystallized malachite blue/green patina. From the era of the legendary Mycenaean Greek Trojan Wars.

The story of the Trojan War the Bronze Age conflict between the kingdoms of Troy and Mycenaean Greece straddles the history and mythology of ancient Greece and inspired the greatest writers of antiquity, from Homer, Herodotus and Sophocles to Virgil. Since the 19th-century rediscovery of the site of Troy in what is now western Turkey, archaeologists have uncovered increasing evidence of a kingdom that peaked and may have been destroyed around 1,180 B.C. perhaps forming the basis for the tales recounted by Homer some 400 years later in the Iliad and the Odyssey. According to classical sources, the war began after the abduction (or elopement) of Queen Helen of Sparta by the Trojan prince Paris. Helen’s jilted husband Menelaus convinced his brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, to lead an expedition to retrieve her. Agamemnon was joined by the Greek heroes Achilles, Odysseus, Nestor and Ajax, and accompanied by a fleet of more than a thousand ships from throughout the Hellenic world. They crossed the Aegean Sea to Asia Minor to lay siege to Troy and demand Helen’s return by Priam, the Trojan king. The siege, punctuated by battles and skirmishes including the storied deaths of the Trojan prince Hector and the nearly-invincible Achilles, lasted more than 10 years until the morning the Greek armies retreated from their camp, leaving a large wooden horse outside the gates of Troy. After much debate (and unheeded warnings by Priam’s daughter Cassandra), the Trojans pulled the mysterious gift into the city. When night fell, the horse opened up and a group of Greek warriors, led by Odysseus, climbed out and sacked the Troy from within. After the Trojan defeat, the Greeks heroes slowly made their way home. Odysseus took 10 years to make the arduous and often-interrupted journey home to Ithaca recounted in the Odyssey. Helen, whose two successive Trojan husbands were killed during the war, returned to Sparta to reign with Menelaus. After his death, some sources say she was exiled to the island of Rhodes, where a vengeful war widow had her hanged.
Photo in the gallery of an Attic black figure vase that shows Theseus killing the Minotaur of the Cretan labyrinth with an identical pattern of Greek sword. A feminine figure looks on from the right, possibly Ariadne. Late 6th, early 5th century BCE. (Archaeological Museum, Milan). See discussion in Branigan, K. Aegean Metalwork of the Early and Middle Bronze Age, Oxford, 1974, p.8-21. 15.5 inches long overall

Every item is accompanied with our unique, Certificate of Authenticity. Of course any certificate of authenticity, given by even the best specialist dealers, in any field, all around the world, is simply a piece of paper,…however, ours is backed up with the fact we are the largest dealers of our kind in the world, with over 100 years and four generation’s of professional trading experience behind us  read more

Code: 22069

A Very Fine, Original, Ancient, Punic War Period Early Roman Republic Era Short Sword, A Gladius Hispaniensis Double Leaf Shaped Bronze Blade Circa 2,300 Years Old From The Time Of Alexander The Great and Early Rome.

Gladius is a Latin word properly referring to the type of sword that was used by ancient Roman foot soldiers starting from the Republic period of the 3rd century BC, and until the mid Roman Empire period of 3rd century AD. From thence forward the more standard Roman sword was the spartha

Early ancient Roman swords were similar to those of the Greeks, called xiphe . From the 3rd century BC, however, the Romans adopted a weapon based on the sword of the Celtiberians of Hispania in service to Carthage during the Punic Wars, known in Latin as the gladius hispaniensis, meaning "Hispanic-type sword". Over time, the Romans improved their sword into an iron version weapon, depending on how Roman battle units waged war, and also created a number of variants. By 20 BC the Hispaniensis was replaced by the Mainz gladius (named after Roman swords found in Germany), in turn replaced by the Pompeii gladius. Finally, in the third century AD the heavy Roman infantry replaced the gladius with the spatha (already common among Roman cavalrymen), relegating the gladius as a weapon for light Roman infantry.

The Roman Republic had been aggressively expanding in the southern Italian mainland for a century before the First Punic War. It had conquered peninsular Italy south of the Arno River by 270 BC, when the Greek cities of southern Italy (Magna Graecia) submitted after the conclusion of the Pyrrhic War. During this period of Roman expansion Carthage, with its capital in what is now Tunisia, had come to dominate southern Iberia, much of the coastal regions of North Africa, the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia and the western half of Sicily in a thalassocracy.

Beginning in 480 BC Carthage fought a series of inconclusive wars against the Greek city-states of Sicily, led by Syracuse. By 264 BC Carthage was the dominant external power on the island, and Carthage and Rome were the preeminent powers in the western Mediterranean. Relationships were good and the two states had several times declared their mutual friendship via formal alliances: in 509 BC, 348 BC and around 279 BC. There were strong commercial links. During the Pyrrhic War of 280–275 BC, against a king of Epirus who alternately fought Rome in Italy and Carthage on Sicily, Carthage provided materiel to the Romans and on at least one occasion used its navy to ferry a Roman force. According to the classicist Richard Miles Rome had an expansionary attitude after southern Italy came under its control, while Carthage had a proprietary approach to Sicily. The interaction of these conflicting policies caused the two powers to stumble into war more by accident than design. The immediate cause of the war was the issue of control of the independent Sicilian city state of Messana (modern Messina). In 264 BC Carthage and Rome went to war, starting the First Punic War

A picture is shown in the gallery of a vase painting depicting a hoplite, 5th century BC. He is armed with a bronze cuirass, a leaf shaped hoplite sword and a hoplite shield of the Argive type, very similar to the gladius hispaniensis. (Paris, Louvre Museum). We show another sword carried in a period vase painting of the Death of Actaeon.

Bronze copper alloy, with superb natural age patination. And likely, the copper of the alloy was sourced from the ancient Cretan copper mines, with a percentage of added tin, in order to create the stronger bronze alloy. Small old age crack at the base of the blades tang. The Hilt would have been made from organic material, such as horn, bone or wood, a material that never survives once buried for the two millennia since it was last used in war. So all that remains is the bronze blade and its tang  read more

Code: 20468

An Original Ancient Greek Sword as Used by King Odysseus King of Ithaca, During The Siege Of Troy, And As incredibly Depicted in Homer's Poem The Iliad, and Homer's The Odyssey Named After Odysseus

A Superb ancient Greek bronze age sword blade, from the ancient pre-history period 'Heroic Age', with fabulous areas of crystallized malachite blue/green patina. From the era of the Mycenaean and Ithacan Greek Trojan Wars,. in overall fabulous condition.

Naturally it cannot be assumed to have been used by the most famed character in Homer's iconic poetry, however, if he was real, this is exactly the sword he would likely have used, some 3200 years ago.

The Hilt, which no longer exists, would have been made from organic material such as horn, bone or wood, and that form of material never survives once buried for the three millennia since it was used in war period in around 1200 B.C.Thus, all that remains is the bronze blade's tang and the iconic leaf form blade. The bronze for this blade, which was likely made from the Cretan copper mines, as an alloy, with an element of added tin.

The story of the Trojan War the Bronze Age conflict between the kingdoms of Troy and Mycenaean Greece straddles the history and mythology of ancient Greece and inspired the greatest writers of antiquity, from Homer, Herodotus and Sophocles to Virgil. Since the 19th-century rediscovery of the site of Troy in what is now western Turkey, archaeologists have uncovered increasing evidence of a kingdom that peaked and may have been destroyed around 1,180 B.C. perhaps forming the basis for the tales recounted by Homer some 400 years later in the Iliad and the Odyssey. According to classical sources, the war began after the abduction (or elopement) of Queen Helen of Sparta by the Trojan prince Paris. Helen's jilted husband Menelaus convinced his brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, to lead an expedition to retrieve her. Agamemnon was joined by the Greek heroes Achilles, Odysseus, Nestor and Ajax, and accompanied by a fleet of more than a thousand ships from throughout the Hellenic world. They crossed the Aegean Sea to Asia Minor to lay siege to Troy and demand Helen’s return by Priam, the Trojan king. The siege, punctuated by battles and skirmishes including the storied deaths of the Trojan prince Hector and the nearly-invincible Achilles, lasted more than 10 years until the morning the Greek armies retreated from their camp, leaving a large wooden horse outside the gates of Troy. After much debate (and unheeded warnings by Priam's daughter Cassandra), the Trojans pulled the mysterious gift into the city. When night fell, the horse opened up and a group of Greek warriors, led by Odysseus, climbed out and sacked the Troy from within. After the Trojan defeat, the Greeks heroes slowly made their way home.
Odysseus took 10 years to make the arduous and often-interrupted journey home to Ithaca recounted in the Odyssey. Helen, whose two successive Trojan husbands were killed during the war, returned to Sparta to reign with Menelaus. After his death, some sources say she was exiled to the island of Rhodes, where a vengeful war widow had her hanged.

The Greek Heroic Age, in mythology, is the period between the coming of the Greeks to Thessaly and the Greek warriors' return from Troy after their return with Helen of Troy. The poet Hesiod (fl. c. 700 BCE) identified this mythological era as one of his five Ages of Man. The period spans roughly six generations; the heroes denoted by the term are superhuman, though not divine, and are celebrated in the literature of Homer and of others, such as Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides.

The Greek heroes can be grouped into an approximate mythic chronology, based on the stories of events such as the Argonautic expedition and the Trojan War. Over the course of time, many heroes, such as Heracles, Achilles, Hector and Perseus, came to figure prominently in Greek mythology.

Early heroes
Many of the early Greek heroes were descended from the gods and were part of the founding narratives of various city-states. They also became the ancestors of later heroes. The Phoenician prince Cadmus, a grandson of Poseidon, was the first Greek hero and the founder of Thebes.

Perseus, famous for his exploits well before the days of his great-grandson, Heracles, was the son of Zeus. Perseus beheaded the Medusa, saved Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus, and was the legendary founder of Mycenae.
Aeacus was also a son of Zeus. Bellerophon was descended from the nymph Orseis. Oenomaus, king of Pisa, in the Peloponnese, was the son of Ares.
Among these early heroes the three - Cadmus, Perseus and Bellerophon - were considered the greatest Greek heroes and slayers of monsters before the days of Heracles.

Of course, despite the Age of Heroes and the time of the Gods of Olympus, being based almost entirely on mythology, apart from the actual city of Troy, which is now proved to be not a myth, the real warriors that lived during that age and time, in ancient pre-history, actually existed, and this is their very form of sword, and one that they would have used.
Photo in the gallery of an Attic black figure vase that shows Theseus killing the Minotaur of the Cretan labyrinth with an identical pattern of Greek sword. A feminine figure looks on from the right, possibly Ariadne. Late 6th, early 5th century BCE. (Archaeological Museum, Milan). See discussion in Branigan, K. Aegean Metalwork of the Early and Middle Bronze Age, Oxford, 1974, p.8-21. `15.5 inches long overall  read more

Code: 22103

A Superb & Most Scarce King George IIIrd Period Therapeutic Phlebotomy Mechanical Instrument, A Scarifyer Of Superb Quality by Ferguson of London. A Pistol Action To Instantaneously Release & Retract 12 Rotating Blades to Slice The Skin For Blood Letting

A fabulous Georgian collectable, mechanical scientific medical instrument, and a superb conversation piece.

Made in 1822 by Daniel Ferguson, 14 Castle Street, London

A phlebotomy scarificator (or scarifyer) is a historical 18th- and 19th-century spring-loaded medical device used to perform bloodletting by making multiple, uniform shallow cuts in the skin.

One of the best condition and beautiful examples, outside of the Science Museum, we have seen in the past 50 years

The Spring-Action Mechanism The device was armed by cocking a lever like a pistol hammer, and placed the instrument flat side down firmly against the patient's skin (typically on the back, arms, or legs).
When the practitioner pressed a trigger, a complex internal gear system released a series of rotating or snapping concealed blades—usually numbering around 12—which instantly slashed the flesh.

Practitioners used bloodletting under the belief that draining blood could re-balance the body's four fundamental "humors" and cure ailments ranging from fevers and infections to mental illness.

Compared to a single handheld lancet or knife, the multi-bladed scarificator was considered a more sophisticated and rapid way to draw a large volume of blood.

By the late 19th century, medical science advanced, proving that the ancient practice of bloodletting lacked therapeutic value for most conditions and often worsened patient outcomes, rendering the scarificator obsolete

See you tube film on their action, use and lack of efficacy from the Medical History Museum In Mebourne Australia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTF0yGGjZEQ&t=100s  read more

Code: 26306