A Good Flintlock Holster Pistol by Hadley of London. With octagonal to round sighted barrel, engraved ‘HADLEY LONDON’ along the top flat, decorated with scrolling foliage and stamped with Tower proofs, foliate engraved tang and screw, border engraved lock decorated with scrolling foliage and signed ‘HADLEY’ on a foliate scroll beneath the pan, cock decorated en suite, full-stocked in walnut with raised moulding around the tang, silver mounts comprising fretted silver side-plate, shield shaped escutcheon and grotesque mask, steel trigger guard with acorn finial and steel ramrod pipes, with horn tipped ramrod. 

HADLEY

Henry Son of Charles. Lambeth St., 1734-44; Red Lion Street., Goodman’s Fields, 1744-9; Suffolk St., Strand, 1755-71. At Church St., St. Martin’s, 1771. In 1735 threatened with prosecution as he had not served proper apprenticeship with father, but from 1742 allowed to bind apprentices, in Gunmakers CO. Contractor to Ordnance, 1756. Noted for series of silver-mounted pistols with Spanish-style barrels: two pairs in the Royal Collection, Windsor, and one in the Tower Armouries. Died 1773. 

Howard L. Blackmore (1986) Gunmakers Of London, 1350-1850. George Shumway Publisher. USA. 

Dimensions:

Bore: 20 Bore 

Barrel Length: 8 Inches (20.32 cm)

Overall Length: 14 Inches (35.56 cm)