Shooting the War

Metalwork in China Restoration
Now for the techniques involving metalwork and drilling. There are three main types of drill, the hand drill or Bob drill; the hand twist drill, or the power drill.
Bob Drill. The Bob drill, which is the traditional china restorers’ tool, consists of a steel spindle with a bob of wood towards the lower end, an eye at the top, and a tapered point at the bottom. It has a cross bar of wood with a hole in the middle which lets it slide up and down the spindle. A lace is passed through the eye at the top of die spindle and fastened to each end of the cross bar.
The cross bar is held by placing three fingers on top of it and the thumb and little finger below. Make a small starter hole in the china with a broken file or a diamond and place the point of the drill, which carries a tube containing a drilling diamond, in this hole. Keeping the drill upright, press down gently on the cross bar. This moves down the spindle, unwinding the lace and turning the spindle complete with bit. The impetus of the bob, acting as a kind of flywheel, carries the rotation of the spindle a little further as the pressure is relaxed and then back again rewinding the lace onto the spindle. Keep the drill straight, don’t let it sway from side to side, and lubricate the bit with oil as the work goes on.
Hand Twist Drill. This is used much the same way, although it is for sonic people not quite such an easy tool to use. It is necessary to exert a little pressure to get the bit to bite, and the piece must therefore be firmly held.
Power Drill. Provided your drill runs at about z000 r.p.m. it call be used for drilling, especially in substantial pieces. The hole will have to be started by hand. Special bits are needed, and the drill must be mounted vertically on a bench stand. For some jobs a horizontal stand will have to be used. If the piece is properly held under the drill, and you are not too heavy handed, this method should be satisfactory.
Tack some kind of pad to the workbench under the drill to act as a shock absorber. This should not be too soft; a piece of thick lino or cork will do.
Put the drilling tube into the chuck of the drill and start the motor, checking carefully to make sure that the tube when spinning is absolutely straight and not whipping at all.
Put the piece of china on the bench under tile drill and bring the machine down, not switched on, to within an inch of the working point. The hole should already have been started with a hand drill. Get everything perfectly aligned and secure the piece to the bench as best you can. Start the drill and bring it very very gently down into the hole. The moment it bites, lift it and have a look to see if you are working straight. Then lubricate with water (or turps if you are drilling glass) and continue drilling, lubricating frequently. To drill large holes, start by drilling a small one, then enlarge the mouth of the hole for the next size drilling tube with a tungsten carbide bit. This means a lot of bit changing, so don’t forget to check for whip each time.
To keep objects steady under the drill, prop them up with large chunks of plastid ne. Small objects can temporarily be set in plaster of Paris, in a small wooden box at the right angle for drilling. If your piece of china is so big that there isn’t room to get it under the drill, it may be possible to swing the drill round so that it points out over the side of the bench, and then the china can be put on a separate table at the right height.
All drilling takes a steady hand, a straight eye and a light touch. If die drill waves about the results won’t be very good, and if too much pressure is applied there is always a risk of splitting the china. This applies especially when using a mounted power drill, as you have so much leverage and it is harder to tell by feel just how much pressure you are putting on. Practice on some useless bits and pieces, for hours, if necessary!
Dowelling. Dowelling is die joining together of two pieces by boring a hole in each, the ends of which match exactly, so that either a straight pin, or a pin angled at the join (as in a knee joint) can be cemented in to hold the two together. For most purposes half hard brass wire 132, in a A’ diameter hole, is right. The holes should be about a quarter of an inch deep. To align the holes properly, bore one side, then push the tip of a thoroughly wet indelible pencil into the hole so that it is well ringed with ink. Then bring the other, undrilled side to the join tight against the drilled piece in exactly the right position. The indelible ink will mark the undrilled piece, and you can go ahead and bore right on the mark. Countersink one or both holes with a slightly bigger bit.
Take a piece of brass wire and flatten it slightly on one side to allow air to escape from the holes as it is inserted. Push it home into one of the holes and cut the wire, allowing sufficient length to go to the bottom of the other hole. Then fit the second piece over the wire. If the wire is too long to allow the faces to come together properly, snip off a little tiny bit and try again until you do get an exact fit. Obviously, the secret of this job is to be sure your holes are accurately bored facing each other, or you will spend ages fiddling about bending the wire or enlarging holes.
When die wire fits properly, take the wire right out and Jay it on the work bench and roll a rough file backwards and forwards across it so that it is scratched and scored to make a key for the cement.
Make up some cement (see Fillers and Cements) from whichever mixture you fancy. Araldite and titanium dioxide or kaolin or whiting are as good as any because Araldite sticks so strongly. Fill one of the holes, that on the bigger piece of china and push in the dowel making sure that it goes right home as it did when you fitted it. Sonic cement will ooze up into the countersinking. Wipe it away, as the countersinking will later fill with cement from the other side of the join and this will help to hold the two pieces together. Try the second piece over the dowel just to make sure that everything still fits. Then remove it, and leave the dowel to set hard in its cement. The next day, or after baking for half an hour at zoo deg F. if epoxy resin has been used, clean the surfaces of the break with methylated spirit, and make up some more cement and fill the hole in the second piece. Provided the broken edges of the piece fit perfectly it is not necessary to put adhesive between them. Adhesive will in effect widen the join a fraction and make a line which will show. But if there arc irregularities or missing chips, then put some adhesive or even a little filler composition in to fill them out. If you decide that adhesive is necessary, put a thus layer on one side of the break only.
Push the second piece well home on to the dowel, and make sure that the fit is good. Bind the pieces together with gummed strip as described before.
Dowelling is used to join modelled or moulded or cast pieces to the whole in exactly the same way. Dowels will also support joins in hollow china, or help to join hollow pieces to solid pieces. The solid piece is bored in the same way as before, but the reverse process has to be carried out in the hollow section, a block of cement being built up to hold the dowel. When both sides are hollow and the hole is large use a heavier gauge wire or make a dowel out of a tube of brass. It is difficult to fill in a large space with cement and to set a small pin iri the middle of it. Wrap a ribbon of cement composition round and round the dowel until it is enough to fill the cavity, and push the dowel, with its cement wrapping, firmly into place. The cement may ride up the dowel if it is too much to go into the cavity, and it will not adhere if it is too little. Having cemented in one end of the dowel, leave it to set, and then swathe the protruding end in die same way, finally fitting the broken piece over the dowel and cement, until a flush join is achieved.
pitillilig. In some ways, pinning is easier than dowelling. A hole is drilled through the broken sections after they have been stuck together and a pin, prepared in the same way as a dowel, is pushed into the hole which has been filled with a fairly liquid cement mixture. The advantages of this method are that there is no difficulty in getting the holes to match up as they are drilled in one go, and that no binding is necessary as the join has already been made. The pin is sunk well into the hole so that the outer end is just below the surface. The hole is then filled in with composition and overpainted in due course (see Fig. io).
Cores. Cores are commonly used when a large missing section has to be built up, to support a piece which may sag
these two pieces
cannot easily or be liable to breakage. Wire of a suitable gauge is used according to the thickness of the china. Holes are bored each side of the aperture, only just deep enough to accept the end of the wire. A piece of wire just slightly longer than the gap is cut and roughened, and sprung into the holes. Or a piece of wire is put into each hole and joined in the middle by soldering. Several pieces of wire can be put across a gap if necessary. If the part to be replaced is curved, a teapot handle for instance, a correctly shaped core of wire is set into holes at each end of the break (see Fig. to). Shaped cores can be made as skeleton frameworks for almost any shape or size of missing piece. Sometimes a core is not fixed at each end, but is a dowel set in the edge of a gap (see Fig. io). A bent pin makes a skeleton limb on which to build up a whole piece by modelling.
All these techniques can be combined with those described under the headings of Sticking, Moulding and Modelling.
If the china is thick enough to carry drill holes, and it is intended to make a press mould out of plasticine or Paribar, a core or cores can be put across the gap to strengthen the new piece, the filler composition being carefully tooled in to cover the wires.
Cores can be a great help when modelling. It is not possible to make a model direct by putting a large lump of composition over and round the core, it will just slip about the wire. First wind a ribbon of composition round and round the wire, and leave it to set hard. Then do the modelling on this conipo base.
Overpainting. The art of overpainting mends in china so that the repair becomes indistinguishable from the original is skilled indeed ! If you cannot paint anyway, then it is going to be pretty difficult for you. The work is done with good quality water colour paint brushes, and you will need several sizes, particularly some good fine ones. Artist’s oil paints are fine because they can be mixed so easily to make absolutely any colour. Reeves Artist’s Gel makes a good medium, or clear enamel glaze if you can get it. If you want the work to dry out quickly add drying agents bought from Artist’s Colourinen. Just how glazed the final result may be depends upon the medium, but the final result can always be varnished if it is not glossy enough. For work where opaque colours are needed, polymer paints are ideal and can be mixed with their own glaze mcdiLini to get a high finish. Darwi Italian Glaze is also excellent for work on china.
Many school teachers know about the modelling compound made by Darwi, and this firm now make a most excellent range of paints for their modelling compound which can be used on china to give the effect of glazes without firing. Darwi transparent paints are available in twelve colours, and thereis a similar range in opaque paints. Both types of paint when dry should be given a coat of the special Darwi Varnish, as this gives it the ceramic lustre, and dries hard to give lasting protection. They also make metallic paints called Darwi-Or and Darwi-Al in gold and aluminium.
The normal technique for building up colour to re- create glaze is to start by painting the whole area with a ground colour which exactly matches the ground colour of the original. This may be anything from black to white, but will probably be fairly opaque and will contain a lot of white. After this layer has dried, further layers of more transparent colour are built up over it until the decoration  matches the original. To explain in detail this is done would be to embark on a course in oil painting. As a simple example, flesh colour is made up of at least five colours. White, a little grey or blue, black, yellow, and crimson. If you mix all these colours together in any proportions the result will be an opaque putty coloured paint. Applied in transparent layers very thinly, first wltite, and then the lightest touches of blue, grey and black, and then a little yellow and a final coat of transparent palest crimson, it will build tip beautiful flesh tones. The portrait painter teams all about this, and if you are going to do much of this kind of work a good book on oil painting techniques could be lielpfiil.
Perhaps I have made ovcrpainting sound too difficult—but it isn’t really, and it is great fun, and astonishingly good results follow just a little practice.
Here is a list of colours which will cover any range you want and will come in useful for other restoration jobs. You might even get interested in painting in oils, if you aren’t already. Anyone who has an oil paint box will have enough colours and will know enough about painting to go ahead without further purchases except medium. Dry powder pigments in several of the tints below are also very useful for all kinds of restoration work. It isn’t necessary to have all these colours. For small jobs just buy the ones you need and so build up a stock piecemeal. Polyurethane glaze gives a good hard clear finish if a high gloss is required.
Colours. These should be oil colours.
Titanium White Ivory Black Cobalt
Naples Yellow Yellow Ochre Burnt Sienna Burnt Umber Rose Madder Indian Red
Deep Cobalt Green Chrome Green
Artist’s oil and riot Student’s
Paynes Grey
French Ultramarine Cerulean
Winsor Lemon Raw Sienna
Raw Umber Venetian Red Cadmium Red Viridian
Permanent Green
GLASSWARE
Wash glass with liquid detergent in warm water, and brush cut glass gently with a soft brush. Dry it and polish it with a silver cloth. If badly stained cut glass is left to soak overnight in warm water and detergent with a few drops of ammonia added, the dirt will probably come off. Tile cloudy deposit left oil glass by lime in water is the devil to shift. Fill the glass with distilled or rain water, rim tap water, and leave it for a day or two and then scrub gently. If the lime still persists a little spirits of salt may shift it. Spirits of salt is a pretty good shifter of all kinds of stains, and it also makes neat little shot holes in your clothes if you spray it when
brushing!
Bad stains will usually yield to a soaking in a five per cent solution of caustic soda. Metal polish will remove stains on glass. Decanters and bottles with stains which will not yieldto brushing or which cannot be reached can be cleaned with said, preferably silver sand. Put in a small handful of sand, some detergent and a little warm water, enough to allow the sand to swirl around when the bottle is shaken. A careful swirl or two should abrade off the stain. A five per cent solution of nitric acid will clean off wine stains.
Scratches oil glass will sometimes respond to a good Polish with jeweller’s rouge. Glass is a strange substance which does in fact flow, and rubbing with rouge does actually make it flow and fill in the scratches.
Removing Stoppers. Glass stoppers sometimes get firmly stuck in old decanters and glass bottles, and brute force is the worst possible way to shift them. Make up a mixture as follows:
2 parts alcohol
I part glycerine
i part common salt
Paint this oil the stopper, particularly where it enters the bottle or decanter, and leave it for a day. A few gentle taps should then shift it. If this doesn’t work, heat the decanter over a stove, or stand it on a radiator so that the air inside will expand, and force out the stopper. This method will have to be used if a stopper has broken offshort in the neck of a bottle. Keep the piece that comes out for it may be possible to repair it.
Making Lamps out of Bottles. Large glass jars and carboys can be made into lamp stands and this job always looks best-if the jar is to be filled with solid or semi-solid matter such as pebbles, or sand—if the flex passes up through the bottle. If the jar is to be filled with liquid, obviously there are difficulties in preventing leakage through the flex-hole, and in keeping the flex totally insulated from the liquid. Outside fittings are best and safest for liquid filled jars.
Bore holes in glass jars exactly as they are bored in china. The safest way is to start by boring a A” hole with a diamond drill, lubricating constantly with turpentine. Then enlarge the hole with successively bigger drills until it measures  which is big enough to take the flex. Start each bigger hole for the follow-up drills with a tungsten carbide bit, and don’t push through too fast or the
will    drill
glass wi split. just let the grind gently away. A little practice on a spare milk bottle is advisable if you haven’t done the job before.
Mending Glass
Sticking. On the whole glass is stuck together in the same way as is china. There are one or two small points of differ- ence. The edges of broken glass are very smooth and some roughing up with a diamond scratcher will give the adhesive a better key. Gum strip is used to put tension across the joins as described in the section on sticking china. This is very important when mending glass as a very tight fit is essential to ensure adhesion. When the adhesive leas set, surplus which has squeezed out is removed by rubbing it down with steel wool, not glass paper as this would scratch the glass. Remaining adhesive can be lifted off with a scalpel or a razor blade.
Wine glasses so often break across the stem, and such breaks can be mended with Araldite, but won’t be particularly strong because glass tends to break again near the point of the first break even if the join itself holds firm. Stainless steel bands are sometimes put round stein-breaks, but this is an expert job and the band must be very accurately made so that it can be sprung over the stein and glued tight round the join.
Dowelling. Dowel glass as you dowel china. This is a better method of mending a wine glass stem. The dowel will show, but inside the stein the Aralditc/titan dioxide cement looks rather like frosting and is not unsightly. Glass is more fragile and shatters more easily than china, so take just that much more care when drilling.
Glass that has been mended with epoxy resin can be heated to speed up setting, but remember that glass breaks if exposed to sudden changes of temperature. Therefore it must be put into a cold oven and the heat brought up gradually to about i 5o deg. F. Then switch off the heat and without opening the oven door leave it to cool right off again. The draught caused by opening the door would crack the glass. After an hour the oven should be cool enough and the adhesive set. Only white clear glass may be heated; coloured glass cannot be stoved and the adhesive will have to be left to harden in its own sweet time.
Moulded Repairs. Glass can be repaired with liquid acrylic resin, of which there are several makes on the market. Technovit 4004A dries to a clear glass-like material. It can be polished and it can be coloured. Acrulite and Tensol Acrylic are two other very good materials for this work.
Make plasticise moulds as described in the china section, but always use white plasticise as acrylic will take up colour from coloured plasticise. No parting agent is needed unless the makers of the acrylic so state. Technovit is made up by adding hardening liquid to a powder, and it is then poured direct into the mould, care being taken that there are no air bubbles present or the effect will not be clear. Warm the glass a little before pouring the filler as acrylic gives off heat as it hardens and might crack cold glass.
Acrylics can be bought ready coloured, or can be tinted with powder pigments and made opaque so that it looks like china, rather than glass, so it is quite useful for repairing china of a self colour which requires no further overpainting. Jasperware may be repaired satisfactorily with acrylic.
Surplus acrylic is cleaned from the edges of the join immediately, while it is still liquid. It can be abraded and rubbed away after hardening but this dulls it and there is the danger of scratching the surrounding glass. Acrylic can be polished with silicone carbide spaced grit cloth or paper, grades 150, 24o and 320.
Sometimes you may need a large lump of pseudo glass for a restoration. Acrylic can be poured into a mould, but this means that a model must first be made, and then a mould as described in the sectionon casting and pressing china parts. It is much easier, really, to make the lumps out of Perspex as this material is worked in exactly the same way as wood, and turned on a lathe. The tools—saws, files, drills etc. are lubricated while working with ordinary soap, and the Perspex will have to be polished when all shaping has been done.
Pieces of chandeliers can be replaced with Perspex, and new pedestals made for glass ornaments (see under Perspex).

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CLOCKS
I once knew a cottage kitchen which boasted seven clocks. They all worked, and they all kept fairly good time, but they were not synchronised and four of them chimed. Twelve noon was a time of fantastic, explosive excitement. One by one the clocks went into action. The plaster flaked off the ceiling, the several cats scattered in all directions. The clocks went on chiming for about three minutes, and one was left in no doubt at all as to what time it was. The owner of the clocks picked them up for pennies at farm sales, and dismantled them by the light of an oil lamp, cleaned them and put them together again. Usually that was all they needed, plus a little persuasion and persistence, to get them going. I don’t think John ever actually made a new part or mended an old one; he may occasionally have used a part from another useless clock, but that was as far as it went.
The moral of all this is that as far as the movements are concerned the amateur may well succeed in making an old clock go just by careful cleaning and oiling; but if there is a broken part it must be replaced or repaired and this is specialist work. There are plenty of books in any local library about clock cleaning and repairing, and a few evenings’ study of the descriptions therein of the various types of movement, escapement etc. will help you at least to have a vague idea of what you are doing when you start dismantling clocks.
Not long ago I inherited all old Norfolk clock. It had hung on the wall in my mother’s home all my life, and for the last twenty-five years to my certain knowledge had not worked. I felt that it had ill some way ‘died’ and that it was only fair to try to resurrect it. When I inherited it, although I had never tampered with a movement before, I felt that as the thing wasn’t working anyway I couldn’t do Much harm. The case of the clock is about four feet long, and it hangs on the wall. It has a very heavy lead weight, which once, when I was a child, fell through the bottom of the clock with a cataclysmic crash when the gut broke. This accident coincided with the double pneumonia of a much loved uncle, and was taken by my family as a sign that lie had died (and presumably twanged the gut in passing). He recovered and lived for years, which destroyed my faith in Bitch omens for the rest of my life.
All this is a little beside the point. First I removed that weight by lifting the pulley off the gut. I removed the hood of the clock by sliding it forward, complete with glass door, and laid it aside very carefully. It is a pity to break a perfectly good glass, although should you do so, or should the glass be broken, a glass merchant will cut a new one, and it can be reputtied into place, or cemented in with Araldite. The round glass in my dock is puttied into the wooden front in exactly the same way as a window, except that the putty is oil the inside. Then I took out the pendulum. Having removed the hood I could see the back of the escapement and the top of the pendulum with its suspension spring (see Fig. 12), and it was simple to take out the pendulum without breaking anything. Lastly I removed the whole movement and face complete on its seatboard. Sometimes the seatboard is screwed to the body of the clock and these screws must obviously be removed first.
Don’t take the works apart just for the fun of it—only
just as much or as little as is necessary to get at them to clean them. Start with the hands, which on a long case clock are held in place by a small pin above a metal washer. Before the face can be taken off, the hands are removed. Then take out any pins or latches holding the dial plate pillars in the front plate of the movement. Clean all the parts well. Steel parts may need a little rust remover oil steel wool, or fine emery cloth. If brass parts have been lacquered and look horrible, strip off the lacquer with methylated spirit, as it is probably shellac. Clean the brass parts carefully with metal polish. Rub steel parts with black shoe polish. Replace old gut lines either with new gut or with nylon or stranded steel, so that the weight will never fall down again as nine did and frighten you half to death, smashing the bottom of the clock into the bargain.
Hands may be reblued with special fluid, or by laying them in sand and heating until they become blue all over. Mend broken hands with silver solder; soft solder is not strong enough for such tiny joints and will melt if the hands are reblued. Rusty blued hands held in the flame of a candle become black all over. Move them ii the flame all the time until they are well coated, and then paint on a thin coat of clear lacquer with a soft paintbrush so as not to disturb the colour. An Aerosol lacquer spray will do the job even better. If the hands are still warm the lacquer will flow on and blend nicely.
I discovered in my clock that sonic idiot had screwed aii ordinary coat hook onto the frame to anchor the gut, which then ran down to the weight and up to the drum. This had the effect of making the weight hang slightly to one side of the case, and I am sure was one reason why the clock did not go. Keep your eyes open for this kind of tampering. I removed the hook and anchored the gut through its original hole. Tie the gut above the hole with a knot with a loop, and slip a little Peg through the 100P so that the knot cannot slide down through the hole.
Broken or hopelessly worn parts must be remade or rebuilt, and this is expert work. Study a good book oil clock repairing if you wish to start on this metalwork.
Having made sure that there is no more dirt, old oil, damp or rust anywhere in the clock, reassembleit. Touch
each bcariuv
g first with a drop of clock oil, using a long feather or a piece of copper wire flattened at one end as a dropper. Don’t use machine oil, and be sparing with the oil. Mineral oil left on brass surfaces causes staining. Never put any oil on the teeth of any of the wheels.
Replace the hands and make sure they move freely, but not so freely that they drop by their own weight. If they are too loose on their arbour, tap the outside brass washer lightly all round, so bending it in just a little, until the hands hold on the arbour.
If the brass face of a clock with engraved lines filled with black wax has been overpolished, and the black retiloved, replace it by making a mixture of shellac, methylated spirit and lampblack, painted back into the engraved parts. Let it set and then wipe off tile surplus with a mild abrasive. Jeweller’s rouge or whiting on a soft rag taken right across the surface should do the trick. Then polish well. The resilvering or regilding of clock faces is a highly technical business, but brass faces can be polished and painted with clear lacquer such as Ercaline. If the clock is not too valuable, you might try regilding or resilvering the face with one of the modern restoration pastes or paints as described in the section on gilding.
Reassemble and set up your clock properly or it won’t go. The movement oil its seatboard is replaced in the clock and the hood put back. Check that the face of the clock is centrally positioned behind the glass door, then take off the hood again so that you can see what you are doing, and put the pendulum back. Put it through the door in the trunk, and up through the gap in the seatboard and through the crutch. Very carefully feed the suspension spring through the slit in the back cock, and pull it gently downwards oil to its seating. The pendulum swings freely with the block on the pendulum below the suspension spring, free in the crutch. Rehang the weight and wind up the clock (see Fig. 13).
Now make sure that the clock is upright. A weight on a Piece of string will give you a plumb line by which to judge. Check the fore and aft level with a spirit level. Make sure the clock stays firmly in its place, using wedges if necessary.
Then swing the pendulum and start the clock. If all is well the tick-lock will be equal and solid. If the clock is not set right the tick will be louder than the rock or vice versa, and the time interval will be noticeably unequal. Provided the clock is set level, the best way to get the pendulum swinging right is to bend tile crutch slightly. Face the clock, place the first finger of the hand on the loudest tick side at the top of the crutch. Place die first finger of the other hand at the bottom of the crutch on the other side, and then bend the crutch gently with the lower finger, towards the louder tick. When the tick is equal, the clock will keep going.
If the clock gains, unscrew the rating nut at the bottom of the pendulum, thereby lengthening the pendulum as the bob drops. If it looses, shorten the pendulum by screwing UP the nut. A pendulum length of 391″ should give a tick of exactly one second !
Longcase clocks usually have nice mahogany or oak cases. These may need repair and cleaning, and tile section on furniture should be consulted. It is a pity, unless it is unavoidable, to strip down the case of an old clock. The patina which it has acquired over the years is irreplaceable.
Any simple clock can be dismantled, and cleaned by brushing the parts with petrol or benzene, rubbing them dry and reassembling them in the reverse order. The trick is to be able to dismantle in the right order and then put it all together again. I have no room to go into the details of dismantling even half a dozen of the simplest movements, and suggest that you borrow the Cassell’s Work Handbook on clock cleaning and restoration (or buy it). Just one point that I must make—do be careful if ‘you try to dismantle a clock with a spring. If the ny
ring is wound
up—and it well may be for people usually wind up a clock that won’t go and then it is left that way—don’t loosen anything until the spring is Unwound, or it may fly out and damage the clock or you quite severely. The spring is unwound by putting the key on the winding square mid holding it firmly. Lift the ratchet pawl or `click’ and let the key turn back half a turn. Drop the click so that it re-engages and holds the spring. Take a fresh grip on the key and repeat die process until the mainspring is unwound. Then you can go ahead in safety.
Dust does clocks no good, and some clocks have a kind of fretwork panel to allow air to flow freely. These frets were originally backed with fine mesh fabric to keep dust out, and that gets filthy or torn. Replace it with clean fine meshed material. Synthetic material won’t do unless it has an open mesh for it does not allow die passage of air. Very file nylon curtain material does quite well. By the same token cracks or openings in the clock case should be sealed wherever practicable with filler or by rebuilding. Even strips of brown paper or Sellotape X inside the clock will do.
Clock Keys. Missing clock keys are not too hard to remake. I-low beautiful you make your new key is up to you, but in its simplest form a clock key usually has an open square end which fits over a square spindle. I have used copper tubing to make a key for a long case clock. Sheet brass or even a piece of tin can be made into a tube and soldered before flattening it to fit. The measurement of the spindle from corner to corner diagonally across the section, is approximately equal to the interior diameter of the tube needed (see Fig. 14). The end of the tube will flatten out to make a bow, or it can be mounted on a piece of wood, or attached to any kind of handle you may fuicy.
When cutting a piece of sheet metal to make a key, leave a flap to form a handle (sec Fig. 14).

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BAMBOO FURNITURE
Bamboo furniture (hall stands, tables etc.) is rather rickety, and repairing it is rather a matter of careful gglucing and dowelling. When a piece of bamboo has been badly broken it will probably be a splintery split rather than a clean break. A wooden rod or dowel inserted through the Huddle of the bamboo will strengthen it so that you can tidy up the break and stick the splinters down again (see Fig. 4). The hollow bamboo is blocked at each ring and a hole will have to be bored right through so that the dowel can pass along. If you don’t possess a long enough bit, a red-hot iron or steel rod will burn a hole through, but be careful not to set die whole thing alight.
If the splintering is so bad that a lot of it has to be removal, tile piece can be built up again with Araldite suitably coloured, either yellow ochre or mottled brown. A good cleansing furniture polish will bring up the bamboo to a good shine, but epoxy resins don’t polish well.
want a permanent waterproof finish, clean off the bamboo thoroughly with a solvent to remove any old wax or polish; then wash and dry it and paint or spray the bamboo with polyurethane varnish or glaze such as konscal Hardglase or Translac.
BAROMETERS
If a barometer needs to be repaired, it is best to take it to an instrument repairer, but the cases themselves were often beautifully made, and quite worth using for some other purpose. The case of an aneroid barometer with the works removed might make a good frame for a small mirror, or, filled in with a suitable piece of wood, a base for any kind Of object, such as a ship model.
BASKET WORK, CANEWORK, WICKERWORK, RUSHWORK
All kinds of furniture incorporating these materials turn up in junk shops. They arc often in quite reasonable condition except for the grime of years ingrained in all the cracks and crevices, and for discolouration and fading.
Deal with the stuff in the garden on a warm sunny day by washing it very thoroughly with soap and warn water on cotton wool or a soft rag. Then dry it well and leave it in the sun for several hours, and the sunlight will bleach the basket work. Wickerwork chairs won’t hurt by being lightly scrubbed with cold salt water and will bleach quite a bit in the sun. Very dilute domestic bleach will whiten these materials without damage.
Stick together any pieces which have become unravelled with Evo-stik, and the following day, polish the chair with a silicone furniture polish or cream. To make a semipermanent protective skin apply a thin solution of acrylic resin such as Technovit, or a clear polyurethane glaze. These coatings will prevent dirt from getting at the wicker again, and will bind any pieces which tend to split or flake apart. The surface will be glossy, but because it is broken won’t have the over-bright mirror effect that these glazes give to plain wood.
To preserve wickerwork without glazing it, apply a paint of white beeswax dissolved in benzene (see Beeswax).
BATTERSEA ENAMELS
Genuine Battersea boxes, snuff boxes, trinket boxes etc. are rare, and are made of copper surfaced with opaque glass decorated by hand painting or by transfer painting. Any kind of small decorated box which turns up in a junk shop is liable to be labelled Battersea, and probably isn’t. As to cleaning and repairing such items, a wipe with a squeezed-out soap swab, a thorough drying, and then a rub over with Renaissance wax should do the trick. Don’t use solvents in case non-synthetic glues have been used.
BEADWORK
Beadwork was once quite a popular art, and 19th-century young ladies seemed to have spent a lot of time at it, making purses, book covers, tea cosies and even ambitious things like screens. A wash in warm soapy water is about the best way to clean it, but dry it immediately and carefully in case there are any metallic beads which might rust. Repairs are a matter of good needlework. Some of the beads won’t pass a needle; in this case use nylon thread which can be pushed through. To stiffen the tip of the piece of thread, dip it in a little melted candle grease and roll it between your fingers.

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NINETEENTH CENTURY
During the early part of the nineteenth century most military firearms were still manufactured by private gunmakers; and at the start of the century, indeed, there was virtually no other source drop leaf table three legs make. The Government’s part in production was practically confined to assembling components which had been made by contractors desserts during 18th century england. Actual Government manufacture seems to have been stimulated by a public accusation that in England the art of making firearms was practically extinct porcelain war antiques. Such an accusation was, of course, an unjustified slur on the many brilliant gunsmiths in the country; but nevertheless in 1802 the manufacture of locks, as well as the assembly of firearms, was started at the Tower of London juste aurele meissonnier. It was soon found that accommodation at the Tower was too restricted for any large-scale production; and in 1808 a Government factory was established at Lewisham, in Kent, for the manufacture of locks and barrels victorian commodes.
Lewisham was not the first Government factory connected with the small arms industry palissy tea set art deco style. As will be remembered, the Royal Gunpowder Factory had been established at Waltham Abbey some years previously antique chamber pot chair. Waltham Abbey’s interests were french aristocracy aftername.not entirely confined to gunpowder, for in 1800 large numbers of walnut trees were planted both there and at the adjoining locality of Enfield Lock 20th c. art deco chairs. This latter place lay a few miles north of Enfield, and was so called after the lock of the Lea navigation, which was the most prominent ‘feature of the district antique three-legged ornamental table.
When the assembly of muskets became too large a commitment for the limited resources of the Tower, Enfield Lock was the obvious choice for an armament works yabu fruit. The original Enfield factory was built in 1804, and rapidly became the principal centre for the assembly of India Pattern muskets unglazed dresden figurines.
As compared with Enfield, which had the advantage of the Lea Navigation and a water supply from the River Lea, Lewisham suffered badly from poor communications and a lack of water for power hirado porcelain. After the end of the Napoleonic wars, therefore, it was decided to concentrate all Government small arms manufacture at Enfield “english ironstone” england” marks. Additional buildings were accordingly constructed at Enfield; and first the barrel branch and later the lock and finishing sections were transferred there, and the Lewisham works closed down antique stemware cobalt blue.
Progress at Enfield was slow, and it was not till about the middle of the century that the factory started to manufacture complete firearms what is a chamber pot of 1800s. In his presidential address to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1868, Mr chambersticks of porcelain. Gregory said that prior to 1852 ‘the construction of fire-arms was really carried on by small manufacturers, who each made only one separate part, one for locks, one for barrels, one for bayonets, etc early cherry drop front desk., the gun-maker being, in fact, little more than a setter up; and the Government, after obtaining by contract the separate parts of their muskets, excepting barrels and some small parts, from separate manufacturers, put them together at their own works at Enfield’ antique dining table detailed carved legs. The number of weapons produced at Enfield by this system was small, and amounted to some 7000 firearms and i 50 swords a year blue glass pheasant. By 1853 this figure had increased to 50,000 firearms and 3000 swords meissen, four continents.
Nevertheless it was apparent that there was considerable room for improvement, and in 1853 a Committee was appointed to investigate the provision of small arms for the Army renown clockmakers in vienna. The establishment of the Committee was apparently due to a report rendered by Mr http:  antcollectors.com antique-furniture 19th-century-sideboards-cellarets-tambour-secretary-regency-side-cabinet-desks-worktables-new-trends. John Anderson, Superintendent of the Woolwich Ordnance Factories, who had been deputed to examine Enfield’s capabilities for the manufacture of bayonets meissen porcelain louis xiv.
Two officers, Colonel J valueof1800’slibrarytable. A 19th century wooden round table and persian. Chalmer, R art deco secretaire 1900.A antique pembroke table, floral inlay design., Inspector of Artillery, and Lieutenant-Colonel A english wedgewood. T victorian renaissance revival credenza. Tulloh, R chippendale cutlery urns.A black alvar aalto stool 60 finmar., Inspector of the Royal Carriage Factory at Woolwich, were requested to report to the Committee on the existing methods of providing small arms ironstone china japan pattern. The following statements were included in their report:
`It appears that the system hitherto adopted to procure small-arms is so heterogenoeus in its character, that it could not fail to produce considerable difficulties after dark candelabras. The Government establishment at Enfield Lock is comparatively small and of a mixed nature, some parts of the work being performed by the establishment, some by contractors; many of the lathes and other tools are the property of the workmen; others belonging to the establishment serpentine pembroke table. The men possessing lathes hire them out to other men chinese table with brass top.
`The establishment at Enfield Lock, being small, and forming part of this heterogeneous system, is unable to hold that salutary check or control over the contractors to prevent exorbitant demands and serious delays antique dressers collectors.
`The principal part of the gun trade upon which the Government mainly depends for supply in case of emergency, is carried on in Birmingham and London, and by men working by hand in wretched cellars and garrets, and great evil arises fro-in the extreme slowness of manufacture metal top antique tables with drop leaf.’
Details of the existing capacity of Enfield were’ furnished by Mr antique jasper cabinet chest serpentine. J antique empire mahogany curved buffet with mirror. Gunner, its Superintendent normandy antique clock longcase. He said that Enfield was now producing the barrels, which had previously been supplied from Birmingham in the rolled state, and could turn out from Zoo to 25o a week vintage silver shell dish with fish feet. He also stated that Enfield had introduced a new method of seasoning timber by using hot air chamber pots 1800’s.
The effect of the new process was that gun stocks could be produced from timber about a month after felling, instead of the previous two to three years wolfgang hoffman table. The result of this, lie added, was that 100,000 completed stocks were stored at Weedon to finish seasoning, and a further large quantity at Waltham furniture maker copenhagen art nouveau.
The Committee’s report recommended no radical changes in the existing state of affairs doucai ming porcelain. It considered that manufacture by contractors should continue,, but that machinery should be more extensively used at Enfield so that its production could be expanded in an emergency biedermeier wardrobe vienna.
In this same year of 1854, however, there was a series of troubles in the arms industry antique furniture prohibition bar examples. Strikes amongst the employees of London and Birmingham gunmaking firms coincided with the start of the 3-tier mahogany and brass side table. Crimean war; contractors, possibly taking advantage of the increased demand due to the• war, were charging higher prices; and there were a number of delays in the fulfilment of existing contracts characteristics antique gate leg. As*a result the Board-of Ordnance decided that as soon as it was in a position to do so it would take over the manufacture of firearms and dispense with the services of the contractors queen anne dressing table, 3 mirror. To implement this decision, new buildings and machinery were ordered and- a mission was dispatched to the United States to look into American methods in small arms manufacture epergne ceramic 19th century. As a result of new construction, the installation of machines and reorganization, production at Enfield was increased to 130,000 muskets and bayonets a year antique sheffield piece marked “royal sheffield”.
The first firearm to be manufactured at Enfield in any quantity was, appropriately enough, the Enfield rifle; and it was the appearance of this weapon, therefore, which heralded louis cube. the decline of the contractor small round chippendale center hall table.
Amongst the most eminent of early nineteenth-century gunmakers was Ezekiel Baker antique gilded console tables gesso design. He has already been mentioned in connection with his famous rifle and his book Remarks on Rifle sofa 1920. Guns raphaelle monti. The production of his rifle was by no means the last of Baker’s activities candlesticks juste-aurele meissonnier. In 18 16, at the request of the East paris exposition candlesticks.India Company, he made several improvements to the Company’s firearms loudon florals 1783-1843. These included alterations to the flash-pan to prevent water reaching the priming and a modification to the spring of the bayonet attachment kem weber. In 1821 he invented a bullet mould and clipper for casting bullets, so that the ball was made perfectly round and more solid buy escritoire ‘trestle’. The following year he devised an improved cock for the flintlock, which enabled the flint to be held more securely william kent staffordshire. In 1824 he patented a lock which could be used for either flint or percussion antique napoleon furniture. This last invention was only applicable to sporting weapons, and was intended for sportsmen who, if they found themselves in an area where caps were unobtainables could use their percussion lock arms as flintlocks rectangular mahogany extension table square pedestal base bun feet.
Baker is also noteworthy as being the first gunmaker to own his own proof house, which adjoined his establishment at 24 Whitechapel Road east indian antique silver. Permission was given to him under a Crown Grant art deco walnut black lacquer display cabinet.
A very famous London gunshop in the years after the end of the Napoleonic wars was 17o Bond Street, the London establishment of William Westley Richards thomas hope chairs curule legs. The Richards family had been merchants and silversmiths of Birmingham, and there William Westley was born in 1788 regency secretare. Instead of following the family tradition he became a gunsmith, and in 1812 opened his own shop at 82 High Street, Birmingham antique japanese ko imari. ‘He quickly became prominent in the gun trade and took an active part in the successful petition of 1813 which resulted in the establishment of the Birmingham Proof House louis the 14th chair. Two years later, realizing the importance of the London market, he established a shop in Bond Street; a quarter which he chose as being frequented by the wealthiest classes of the community “liberty furniture”.
Richards was fortunate in his selection of his London agent: a very remarkable character called William Bishop 19th century south african stinkwood antiques. Already well known both in the gun trade and in the shooting field, Bishop had ready access to the type of customer for whom Richards wished to cater art deco brass lamp with women. In addition, he was of enormous size, had an eccentric taste in dress and was always immaculately turned out barker brothers dining table. At the Bond Street shop he invariably wore a swallow-tailed coat and a top hat with a broad brim antique limed oak furniture. On top of the coat a spotless white apron reached to his ankles and the cuffs of his shirt were turned back over the forearms inlaid furniture octagon music table. Presided over by this impressive figure, 17o Bond Street became almost a club, frequented by young officers of the Fighting Services and members of the landed and sporting aristocracy antique furniture art deco chairs. There they would discuss their mutual shooting interests and garner wisdom and advice from ‘the Bishop of Bond Street’ example of 18th century wooden handle silverware. For two generations, and in some cases three, Bishop was the trusted counsellor in all matters relating to
0 antique occasional cabinets. guns and shooting; for he was fifty-six years at 17o Bond Street, eventually dying in harness in 1871 florals in british furniture. During that long period there must have been many officers who went on active service equipped in accordance with the advice of ‘the Bishop’ barker brothers furniture. To Richards, of course, his services must have been invaluable george iii pembroke table.
In 184o Richards received the Royal Warrant and the appointment of Gunmaker to the Prince Consort, and in 1851 he was granted a special Medal Award for, his exhibits at the London Exhibition at the Crystal Palace d-form dining table. In 1855 he was succeeded by his son, Westley Richards porcelain relief herons and swans. The work of the latter on breech-loading weapons and cartridges will be considered in a later chapter antique small oval drop leaf table.
Two of the best-known gunmakers at the end of the eighteenth century and the first quarter of the nineteenth century were the Manton brothers epergnes. The elder, John Manton, had started his gunmaking career as foreman to T french side cabinets. Twigg art deco upholstery fabrics. In 178o he set up on his own at 6 Dover Street in London, and, until surpassed by his younger brother, was probably regarded as the leading gunsmith antique 8 leg table. In his later years he was making percussion holster pistols 18c dutch marquetry bombe front cabinet.
Joseph Manton started his own independent concern some fifteen years after his brother, and opened a gunshop at 27 Davies Street, Berkeley Square, in London dutch style furniture. Joseph’s ventures into percussion locks, and his relations with Forsyth and Colonel Hawker, have already been narrated collector’s table. He was easily the foremost gunsmith of his time, but he is remembered chiefly for his part in the development of the sporting gun antique octagonal tilt top tea table.
James Collins of 12 Vigo Lane, Regent Street, London, catered for officers’ more expensive tastes by making flintlock holster pistols with silver mounts jan van mekeren. In his later days he produced a most peculiar percussion lock pistol, which could fire three shots in succession, and embodied a revolving striker and a folding trigger 18th century brittany cupboards.
Dale, who had a shop in London, was unique amongst British gunsmiths in making the locks for an American military firearm art deco in german. This was the, Model 1818 -69 calibre U 18th century dark wood dining furniture and oriental carpet.S “chateau des tuileries”. Army flintlock dragoon pistol, made “bristol porcelain” for sale 18th century. at the Springfield, Massachusetts, armoury silver candlesticks worth. Dale’s name was stamped on the inside of the lock plate george 3rd italian furniture designer. It does not seem to have been a very popular weapon owing to the terrific recoil, and only i000 were made antique sideboard with desk.
Joseph Davidson, also a London gunsmith, made flintlock pistols under contract for the Honourable East India Company dessoir moon limitless. The Company had its own proof mark which consisted of a heart quartered, with the letters V typical features of britain.E antique butterfly drop leaf table.I stier in arabisch schrift.C 18th century dressing tables., one in each quarter and in that order candelabrum.
George H federal sideboard with eagle brass. Daw of 57 Threadneedle Street, London, appears to have had -the sole rights in England for the manufacture of General Jacob’s firearms antique tables trestle rectangle. He made some very popular single- and double-barrelled sporting versions thomas hope sofa.
Clark of Holborn in London had a Government contract for the supply of muskets fold over tea table antiques. He also made some flintlock holster pistols with double barrels, and pocket pistols with the long popular box locks and cannon barrels antique art nouveau wardrobes.
T sheffield porcelain “herbs and spices”. H early 19th century american rosewood cabinet makers. Potts, who had a shop in Haydon Square, London, secured the (from the point of view of his reputation) dubious advantage of a Government contract for the manufacture of the Brunswick rifle meisen hand painted plates 1920 allegorical. Apart from the appalling Brunswicks, he made presentation firearms; and a number of these special weapons were bought from Potts’ establishment for Indian princes japanese antique round table.

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The Reverend Alexander John Forsyth, M renniance ebony cupboard italian antique.A brother furnitures (cupboard)., minister of the parish of Belhelvie in Aberdeenshire, was an enthusiastic shot 1940s art deco rocket sofa. Ile was fortunate, therefore, in that near the manse where he was -born, and where in due course he had succeeded his father as minister, was a loch which was a favourite resort of wild geese, duck and other water fowl loiu xiv antique laquer dresser. In addition to the hours which he spent on the shores of the loch with his long I 2-bore flintlock, the Reverend Alexander had ‘another hobby sheraton 18th century dresser. In the grounds of the manse was a little garden house which he had converted into a workshop or laboratory robert jupe table. His neoclassic furniture. parishioners knew it as the ‘Minister’s Smiddy’, and in it he pursued the taste for mechanics and chemistry which he had acquired at antique mahogany drum tables library tables writing tables. King’s College, Aberdeen antique tilt top table inlay design.
It was natural that one hobby should help the other antique music lyre chair. After getting into position for a perfect shot on the loch, Forsyth had frequently been exasperated by the fact that geese, warned by the flash of the flintlock, had time to take flight before the gun actually fired pel tubular steel side chairs. This tendency of a flintlock to ‘hang fire’ was, of course, well known, and, as shown in the last chapter, it was taken account of in military musketry instruc, tion italian wood armchairs. It only became of importance, however, in the case of a fleeting target, or, as in the case of the Reverend Alexander’s geese, a very alert one small round breakfast table. Forsyth first tried to get over the difficulty by designing a sighted hood, which fitted over the flintlock and would, he hoped, conceal the flash from the geese bugatti furniture range. The results, however, were not entirely satisfactory chinese ebony and marble table.
He next turned his attention to the possibility of obtaining an instantaneous explosion of the powder art nouveau furniture shop france. It may have been the researches of a Frenchman named Berthollet which finally led Forsyth to ‘detonation’ as the only answer to the problem; that is, in exploding a substance by hitting it with a hammer antique napoleon furtiure.
That certain substances, such as the fulminates of silver and mercury, would detonate when struck, and had great explosive power, had been known to scientists for many years gateleg table oak drop leaf rectangular. Samuel Pepys, for instance, records in his diary of the i ith November 1663:
`At antique holophane lighting.noon to the Coffee-House, where, with Dr drop front desks. Allen, some good discourse about physick and chymistry black alvar aalto stool 60 finmar. And among other things I telling him what Dribble, the German doctor, do offer of an instrument to sink ships; he tells me that which is more strange, that something made of go!d,, which they call in chymistry Aurum Fulminans, a grain, I think he said, of it put into a silver spoon and fired, will give a blow like a musquett, and strike a hole through the silver spoon downwards, without the least force upward; and this he can make a cheaper experiment of, he says, with iron prepared decoration metal bureau table desing.’
The difficulty about the fulminates was their great power antique dresser with turned leg. It was quite impractical to use them as the propellent for a bullet as they would have blown the gun up hunting chest french 18th century. Berthollet in 1788 tried to get over the problem by mixing potassium chlorate (which had lately been found to have the same property of detonation) with other components to make a gunpowder which would give a more powerful, and, at the same time, more rapid explosion than could be obtained with saltpetre as the principal ingredient carved frame desk chair. However, Berthollet’s new powder proved far too dangerous either to make in large quantities or to use with firearms spanish pottery 16th century. Further attempts by Berthollet to find a solution were prevented by -the French Revolution tableware expensive.
Forsyth’s first idea was to use a powder containing potassium chlorate or fulminate of mercury as a primer in an ordinary flintlock cheverton reducing machine. He certainly got an instantaneous flash in the priming pan, but it was so instantaneous and so little heat was, generated that the charge in the gun was not ignited at all antique fashion engravings. He then tried adding ordinary powder to the mixture in the pan, but the rapid flash scattered the gunpowder without giving it time to ignite antique cigar chair with wood arms.
After these failures Forsyth came to the conclusion that he must try a change in the method of ignition imperial,gate leg. His trials had already shown that the fulminates exploded far more violently when struck than when ignited by fire rare antqiue marbels. Experiments on these lines at last met with success furniture designersgerman. Forsyth succeeded in modifying one of his flintlock fowling-pieces to percussion ignition and used it on his loch during the winter of 1805-06 how to detect silver cutlery. The satisfactory rise in the geese casualty rate proved to the Reverend Alexander that an answer to the problem had indeed been found art deco kneeling dancer lamp.
It was soon apparent to dither Forsyth or his friends that there was a far wider scope for the new lock than in the destruction of the Belhelvie geese; and early in i 80 he journeyed to London antique mahogany card table, imperial.
Forsyth was armed with letters of introduction to some of the distinguished sportsmen in London telescopic pie crust table. It is likely that he antique japanese ko imari. also had in mind the possible use of his lock for antique light yellow dresser. military arms valueof1800’slibrarytable. In any case, one of these sportsmen showed the converted flintlock fowling-piece to Sir Joseph Banks who in turn showed it to Lord Moira, at that time Master-General of the Ordnance 1930 walnut art deco style furniture. Moira was much impressed with the invention and, sending for Forsyth, urged him to carry out further experiments in the Tower of London louis 16th style furniture. Forsyth eventually agreed on the condition that his expenses were- paid and that he should be provided with an ordained assistant to take charge of his parish during his absence drop leaf table stable base. This was arranged, Moira authorizing an initial payment-of ico and obtaining leave of absence for the minister of Belhelvie from the Aberdeen Presbytery medieval “reading slope”.
The task before Forsyth was somewhat different to the problem which he had originally set out to solve 19th century louis xv mahogany french chest of draws floral inlaid wood with marble top and glass cabinet with cabriole legs. In the case of the Belhelvie geese the speed of discharge was the important factor, and an occasional misfire was of no great matter canadian desk with drawers. For the military arm the certainty of ignition was of far greatef importance than its speed windows 1930. The flintlock misfired often, and its open mechanism was particularly susceptible to damp 18th century antique sofa collectors. The percussion arm with its enclosed lock and powerful priming action seemed to offer some certainty of ignition, and it was this aspect which must have appealed especially to Moira 19th century chinese chamber pots.
There were many difficulties art deco game tables. The original fowling-piece lock was unsuitable, and when a better enclosed lock was designed the original detonating mixture proved too powerful small antique french writing cabinet. Forsyth had originally preferred a powder with fulminate of mercury as the main ingredient, since it was cleaner than other detonating mixtures italian glass fronted display cabinets. It was found, however, that with accurately machined locks detonating mercury always burst or distorted the part which contained it antique silver candelabra screw. Since other mixtures were too foul Forsyth had to find something else round gateleg table. Moreover, several chemists having already been damaged by accidental explosions of fulminating compounds, Forsyth found it impossible to find any of them who would do more than provide him with the ingredients value of empire style china closet 1910. He therefore had to carry out all experiments himself antique jugend style cupboard.
Eventually he was successful gate leg drop leaf table. He produced a detonating powder which answered all requirements, and a lock the principle of which was approved by Lord Moira in April 1807- At this juncture, however, there was a sudden change of Ministry, which swept Moira from office and reinstalled Lord Chatham as Master-General of the Ordnance antique silver serving platter with peacock emblem on back. Chatham’s reaction to Forsyth’s experiments was to direct their author to render an account of his expenditure, return all Government property in his possession, and remove himself and his `rubbish’ from the Tower chippendale antique tables. In addition the new M wheat antique dresser.G porcelain relief herons and swans.O sphinks console tables. refused to allow the payment of the assistant at Belhelvie as part of Forsyth’s expenditure,
Forsyth left the service of the Government, therefore, not only without reward for his invention, but out of’ antique czechoslovakia porcelain vase.pocket on his expenses extending console table. If the stupid and incompetent Chatham thought little of the percussion lock, there were others who grasped its potentialities scandinavian octagon dining table. Napoleon conveyed to Forsyth the enormous offer of Z2o,000 for the use of his lock mannerist carved table. Forsyth’s outright rejection of this italian rococo style antique three arch gilded mirror.offer may possibly have saved his country the loss of the war neo-rococco cabinet.
It would not have been surprising if the Reverend Alexander had now returned to his Scottish parish blacks, meissen, porcelain. He was, however, a determined and very courageous man, and, furthermore, he had an implicit faith spanish antique table. in his percussion lock french display cabinet south eastern area. He decided therefore that if the Government would have nothing to do with his invention he would put it on the market as a private venture art deco vases. His first step was to take out a patent, and to help him to draw up the specifications he consulted the famous engineer, James Watt value clawfoot drop leaf table. The resulting document was quite a masterpiece, since the very general terms in which it was phrased covered the manufacture of all gun-locks on the percussion principle antique bedside tables marble tops. It read as follows:
`First, as to the chemical plan and principles thereof, instead of permitting the touch-hole or vent of the pieces of artillery, fire-arms, mines, chambers, cavities or places to communicate with the open air, and instead of giving fire to the charge by a lighted match, or by flint and steel; or by any other matter in a state of actual combustion applied to a priming in an open pan, I do close the touch-hole or vent by means of a plug or sliding piece, or other fit piece of metal or suitable material or materials, so as to exclude the open air, and to prevent any sensible escape of the blast or explosive gas or vapour outwards, or from the priming or charge, and as much as possible to force the said priming to go in the direction of the charge, and to set fire to the same, and not to be wasted in the open air; and as a priming I do make use of some or one of those chemical compounds which are so easily inflammable as to be capable of taking fire and exploding without any actual fire being applied thereto, and merely by a blow, or by any sudden or strong pressure or friction given or applied thereto without extraordinary violence; that hat is to say, for example, the salt formed of dephlogistigated marine acid and potash (or potasse), which salt is otherwise called oxymuriate of potash; or I do make use of such of the fulminating metallic compounds as may be used with safety: for example, fulminating mercury, or of common gunpowder mixed in due quantity with any of the before-mentioned compounds; and these compounds, or mixtures of compounds, I find to be much better for priming than gunpowder used alone, which cannot be made to explode without some sparks or actual fire applied thereto, or else without such a degree of extraordinary and violent percussion as cannot conveniently be made use of in gunnery, or with any of the firearms or artillery that are in most general use arabesque vertical plate racks. But it is to be observed that I do not lay claim to the invention of any of the said compounds or matters to be used for priming, my invention in regard thereto being confined to the use and application thereof to the purposes of artillery and firearms as aforesaid; and the manner of priming and exploding which I use is to introduce into the touch-hole or vent, or into a small and strong chamber or place between the said touch-hole and vent, and the plug or sliding piece, or other piece by which the communication with the external air is cut off, a small portion of some or one of the chemical compounds herein-before mentioned (for example, as for priming to a musket, about the eighth part of a grain), and when the required discharge is to be made I do cause the said chemical compound or priming to take fire and explode by giving a stroke or sudden and strong pressure to the same, communicated by and through the said plug or sliding piece; or other piece before mentioned or described, in consequence of which the fire of the priming is immediately communicated to the contents or charge placed within the said piece of artillery, fire-arm, mine, chamber, cavity, or place, and the discharge accordingly follows czechoslovakia old furniture.’
The patent was granted in July 1807, and in the following year Forsyth opened a gun shop at No antique engraved drawings. io Piccadilly under the title of ‘Forsyth & Company, Patent Gun Makers’ the period preceding art deco. The name of the assistant whom he engaged is probably now better known than that of his master, for it was none other than James Purdey, formerly with Joseph Manton and later founder of the famous firm of James Purdey & Sons dutch rococo walnut cupboard. The wares of the new company were advertised as follows:
`The Forsyth patent gunlock is entirely different from the common gunlock green wedgewood plant pots. It produces inflammation by means of percussion and supersedes the use of flints boulle tabel. Its principle advantages are the following: The rapid and complete inflammation of the whole charge of gunpowder in the chamber of the barrel india brass table tray. The prevention of the loss of force through the touchhole antique brass leg knee mount french. Perfect security against rain or damp in the priming antique table collectors. No flash from the pan and less risk of accidental discharge of the piece than when the common lock is used antique card table collectors. The charge of gunpowder to be from one third to one fourth less than when the flintlock is used meubles art antique american.
The lock which was fitted to the guns sold at io Piccadilly was of the same design as that perfected by Forsyth during his time at the Tower names of art deco furniture makers. It -was) however, of finished and decorative workmanship, as compared with the rough models which he made for military trials queen anne antique bureau photo. At approximately the same place where the flash-pan is on a flintlock gun, a steel plug was screwed into the side of the barrel 18th century drum tables. The plug was drilled through the centre with an-inch hole which gave access into the breech and to the powder charge sideboard plinth. Mounted on, and pivoting on, the plug was the container which held the priming charge: This container was, on account of its shape, described as the `scent-bottle’ type meissen candlesticks. It was divided horizontally into two halves, the lower of which was filled with detonating powder austere style. On the upper surface of the plug was a small ‘flash-pan about * inch wide and -’16 inch deep, and from the bottom of this a very narrow vent of about pin-size diameter led to the central hole of the plug antique jugend style cupboard. (The outer end of this central hole was closed by the screw- which held the container in position greek neoclassical porcelain.) When the container was turned through i8o degrees a small amount of the detonating powder dropped into the flash-pan francaise antique. Reversing the container to its original position brought a striker into line with the flash-pan antique mahogany dolphin table. When the trigger was pulled a hammer was released which hit the striker and detonated the priming powder american made old french style chairs. The flash-pan being enclosed the flame was forced down the vent with great force, causing an instantaneous discharge of the gun ruhlmann chair.
The lower half, or magazine, of the container held enough priming powder for about twenty shots antique rectangle drop leaf table cabinet. In addition, part of the equipment of the gun was an ivory flask in which was carried spare powder to refill the magazine biedermeier canape.
The new lock was an immediate success, and between i8o8 when Forsyth opened his business until 1821 when his patent expired nearly 4000 locks were made dutch 18th century walnut chest on chest. Some of these were attached to newly manufactured guns and pistols, and others were sold separately for fitting to converted flintlocks social origins of art deco. Use of percussion sporting arms became widespread britannia silver candlesticks. A well-known and very keen sportsman, Mr paul follot chair. H 1900th century furniture. Baring, M 1840s wooden chest.P coalbrookdale neptune dish., wrote to Forsyth in’ 1814 saying, ‘I think I may now congratulate you on having made your Patent lock perfect and I venture to predict that in a few years nothing else will be used by sportsmen in this country kotahya pottery. I have shot with your guns for the last four years entirely, and under their different stages of improvement, and few persons can be better qualified than myself to form a practical opinion of them antique chinese display cabinets black oak. I shoot every day it is possible to go out from the beginning of the season to the end and I am often in the predicament of firing my gun as often as my barrels will bear to be fired in one day 1940’s art deco black and gray lacquer bedroom set prices.’
Nevertheless the `scent-bottle’ lock had one serious weakness scroll planter table y chair. The loose detonating powder in the magazine sometimes exploded owing to the flame from the flash-pan leaking through to it “goldscheider mark”. A later Forsyth design, incorporating a magazine which slid forward on rollers over the flash-pan, was open to the same objection console tables tubular uk.
Some of the other gunmakers had ideas as to how the difficulty might be surmounted, but Forsyth’s porcelaine antique motif ming. all-embracing patent protected him from any competition in Great Britain antique bullock’s 8′ sofa. A Genevan gunsmith of Paris, Pauly, however, arrived at the same solution in 18 12 which had already occurred to one or two dinning table carved like an animal. British gunsmiths austrian mirrored tables. This, in short, was to put the detonating mixture in a pellet, thus avoiding the danger of the loose powder parquetry specimen top. Pauly’s pellet was much the same as the present-day cap used for toy pistols walnut beaconsfield wardrobe. It consisted of a mixture-of potassium chlorate with sulphur and charcoal, to which was added a small amount of gum arabic antique pembroke table, inlay design. This was moulded into a hard pill and enclosed between two paper discs steele art deco chair wood arm rests.
In 18 16 Joseph Manton, younger brother of John Manton who had been foreman to Twigg, took a risk and patented a percussion pellet lock antique octagonal table small. This embodied a hammer with a hollow head in which the pellet was first inserted, and then the striker “chinese screen” and “mother of pearl”. The striker was drilled down its centre with a very narrow hole, and had a cavity cut in its outer surface antique trestle refectory table. When the trigger was pulled the forward movement of the hammer brought the striker into contact with a nipple, which fitted into the cavity and had a vent communicating with the powder charge cassone furniture -chris -vincent -antonio -gabriele. The force with which the hammer hit the nipple drove the striker back against the pellet, and the resulting flame travelled down the central hole in the striker and thence via the vent in the nipple to the powder japanned antique chest-how to strip lacquer. Though an ingenious idea, Manton’s lock was clearly an infringement of Forsyth’s patent, and was hardly an improvement on it since the striker had to be removed after each shot lambeth ingredients.
In 1818 Joseph Manton tried-again antique ceramic dish in silver stand. This time, instead of using a pellet he had designed a `tube-lock’, which he thought to be outside the scope of the Forsyth specification walnut side tables and lowboys. In this lock one end of a copper tube filled with fulminate of mercury was inserted :into the vent communicating with the charge 18th century amboyna card table. There it was held by a spring cover, and was struck by the hammer through a hole in the cover art deco furniture in united state. This was a very successful design, for it was simple and gave a certain discharge commedia del arte wallendorf. However, Forsyth was successful in a lawsuit, and Manton was unable to proceed with his lock deco porcelain spanish dancers female.
This lawsuit came almost at the end of Forsyth’s active interest in his company antique 17th century drop leaf tables. The patent had only two years to run, and in 1819 the Reverend Alexander returned to his parish, where he was to continue to officiate until his death in 1843, In the same year the company moved to 8 Leicester Street, Leicester Square, and finally ceased operations in 1826 george bullock collectors cabinet.
Forsyth received little public recognition during his life-time etruscan pottery price offer. In 1842 the Treasury granted him X2oo, on the recommendation of the Master-General of the Ordnance, ‘for remuneration as the original inventor of percussion firearms’ antique cigar chair with wood arms. This was four years after the first issue of percussion arms to -the Army, and was presumably the parsimonious reflection of the stirring of the official conscience antique pottey work table. About four months after Forsyth’s death the M antique occasional table inlaid roses.G baluster leg draw leaf table.O popular art techniques and their origin. represented that the previous reward was inadequate, with the result that Forsyth’s three surviving relatives received the’further sum of ki000 to divide between them mid century modern spider leg coffee table.
The expiration of Forsyth’s patent, of course, resulted in the appearance of a large number of new designs of percussion locks 1740’s art dining. Joseph Manton’s tube-lock reappeared, and became a great favourite for the big punt guns used against wildfowl regency furniture history.
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It gave the particularly powerful flash which was required to ignite the large charge of coarse powder with which these guns were customarily loaded 18th century drinking glasses.
A number of new pellet locks were also devised; but although a few were used for a time on fowling-pieces, they had no lasting influence on the design of percussion locks, and they cannot be claimed as being in the line of development which led to military percussion arms jacobian furniture.
The invention which really made the percussion lock a practical military proposition was the copper cap expensive antique utensils. This extremely simple device had results of such far-reaching importance that there were several claimants to the honour of having invented it 1880s cooking utensils. The cap was a thimble-shaped piece of copper with a charge of detonating mixture inside-its crown five legs two leaf oak antique dining table. This was placed on a nipple having a central vent which cominunicated with the charge of gunpowder in the chamber of the gun antique empire candlestick. All that was required to fire the gun was the blow of the hammer on the cap antique pedestal regency sideboard.
It seems now to have been established beyond doubt that the inventor of the cap was an English landscape painter named Joshua Shaw, who emigrated to America in 1816 antique chinese scroll coffee table.
Shaw designed his first lock in 1814 art deco reproductions clock. This was an early form of the ultimate design weisweiller furniture. The cap, however, was of steel, and the priming mixture was inserted separately into the crown of the cap as a pellet antique table with enamel top and cup design. Unlike the final copper cap, this steel cap was not thrown away after firing, but was- used again with a fresh pellet robert jupe extending circular table copy. A gun with a lock of this design was made for Shaw by Roantree, a Durham gunsmith directoire napoleon furniture. Forsyth’s monopoly, however, prevented Shaw from securing a patent austria furniture company. Nevertheless he carried on his experiments, first replacing the steel cap with an expendable one of pewter; and ultimately, in 1816, with the copper cap joan klock, amsterdam, clockmaker. It may have been his inability to manufacture his copper-cap lock’ in England which caused Shaw to go to America antique bentwood rocking chair. There his invention was successful, and eventually he was employed by the United States Government in making percussion caps for experimental military arms tecnical drawings antique. Whilst engaged on this work in 1831 an explosion disabled his left hand late classical pier table. Shaw put in a claim for compensation, which was recognized by Congress; but it was not till sixteen years later that Congress awarded him a sum of $ x 6,000 for past and future rights in his invention kent extending antique table.
In the meantime it appears that in England Joseph Manton had obtained some knowledge of Shaw’s copper cap antique korean porcelain. Possibly he had heard of it before the latter’s departure for America malard furniture. In any case about 1818 he made such a cap; and as soon as Forsyth’s patent had expired he started selling arms with the copper-cap percussion lock louis 16th style furniture. Manton had an enthusiastic backer in Colonel Peter Hawker of Longparish, Hampshire, a famous spprtsman, author of a well-known book called Instructions to Toung Sportsmen, wounded in the Peninsular campaign, and Lieutenant-Colonel of the North Hampshire Militia antique frnech empire furniture. In his book Hawker claimed that he ‘was a patron of Joseph Manton and made many field trials of his guns, and contributed to the design and inventions of Joseph Manton’ wm iv 3 pedestal dining room table. He goes on to say that he suggested the idea of the copper cap -to Joseph Manton when he was engaged on his tube bloomsbury london arts and crafts. lock, and that the latter reluctantly agreed to try it antique drop front desk. Manton certainly labelled his first gun fitted with a lock of this type ‘Made from the Original Design of Colonel Peter Hawker’ antique ceramic indian elephant end table. Writing some time after the event the recollection of this gesture by Manton may have coloured Hawker’s memory antique tea table carved japanese.
Manton, however, was not the only English gunsmith to make a copper cap in 1818 architect jon monteith gates. Joseph Egg of Piccadilly may even have preceded Manton, and he was making guns with the cap percussion lock at the same time banquet table antique middle ages. Furthermore, he was labelling the cases with the manifestly inaccurate legend, ‘Inventor of the Percussion Cap’ can decorative moulding be antique bookcase.
By the x 8 2o’s, then, percussion arms were a commonplace amongst sportsmen 18th empire furniture. It was to be many years yet before they were to be placed in the hands of the soldiers flemish refectory table.

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Hennem was requested to make thirty of his screwless locks for Durs Egg’s breech-loading cavalry carbines austro hungarian empire architecture .: and two months later he was directed to make ninety muskets to the design of the Master-General, of the Ordnance (now the Duke of Richmond) and to fit them with his locks chippendale drum table 2 drawers . On the ist October 1785 Major-General O’Hara, Colonel of the 22nd Foot (now The Cheshire *Regiment), invited Hennem to fit his locks to all the muskets in his regiment john widdicomb furniture/french provincial . O’Hara must presumably have seen and been extremely impressed with the 2oth’s trial muskets, for the alteration was a very expensive one to carry out under regimental arrangements amphora czechoslovakia . It must have looked to Hennem as if the future of his lock was assured, and yet it seems that O’Hara’s was the last important order that he had meubles decoration antique europe .
On the 22nd February 1′786 Hennem offered *to modify the stocks of Sergeant’s, carbines and to replace the existing locks with his own for an inclusive charge of 155 barley sugar twist pillars timber . -for each carbine george iii serving table . This offer was politely rejected with the explanation that a change of the firearms of the Army was under consideration small antique sutherland table . The change was due to a competitive venture by Hennem’s erstwhile backer or co-operator, Henry Nock delftware t.i holland .
Nock was one of the leading gunsmiths in both London and Birmingham ivan chermayeff, furniture . He held Government contracts for the manufacture of muskets and carbines, and produced, in addition, many ingenious and original weapons of various types brass frame girandole images . He designed, for instance, a ‘volley gun’ with seven barrels all fired by one hammer at the same time, and intended for Naval boarding parties; four- and seven-barrel revolving pistols; a heavy piece, or ‘wall-gun’, with a repeating action; and several others how much is a victorian dressing table worth . He was obviously the type of gunmaker to whom Jonathan Hennem’s lock would have appealed silver spoon design europe 18th century .
What the arrangement was between Hennem northern europe in the 16th and 17th century . and Nock is not known early 19th century upholstery fabric . It may be that Hennem was too independent a character for Nock’s liking pier roger vandercruse . In any case he had found an eccentric genius who had invented a lock which was somewhat similar to Hennem’s, though more complicated bulbous leg dining table . This was a mathematician named George Bolton, who at one time had been tutor to the children of George III 18th century silver mote spoon . He had devoted a large part of his spare time to the improvement of gun-locks; and seems to have established a gun shop in London in 1773 with another Bolton (F luxury art deco upholstery fabrics . H jennens & bettridge tole tray .), who was perhaps a brother rococo revival marquetry-inlaid wardrobe .
The Bolton lock also had no screws, and all its components were enclosed between two plates, of which the outer (in the position of the normal lock plate) was fitted with pins to hold the moving parts antique double claw pedestal dining room table . A special feature was the accurate machining to standard dimensions, which permitted the easy replacement of breakages antique inlaid pembroke table .
Nock seems to have acquired the sole rights in this lock, for most, if not all, of those made for the Government bear his name ‘H scheid enamel . Nock’ on the plate tripod table, claw and ball foot, antique . In, probably, 1785 Nock produced a new range of military firearms, comprising musket, pistol and carbine, which he submitted as suggested replacements for the Brown Bess series of flintlocks antiques furniture,josef hoffmann . Initially he seems to have* met with considerable success chinese porcelain wall decoration mask history . Trials carried out with his arms must have been satisfactory, for they led to a cessation of orders to Hennem, and a large number were issued to regiments of Horse and Foot for extensive trial turn top walnut tea/card table . Further, it does not appear that art deco consoles . ultimate approval was doubted, for a very large number of the locks were manufactured, and it is reasonable to suppose that these were intended for the conversion of existing flintlocks antique collectors cabinets . Nevertheless the Nock arms were rejected after only a short trial 1940’s art deco black and gray lacquer bedroom set prices . There must have been some weakness in the lock which led to it comparing unfavourably with the sturdy old Brown Bess under active service conditions apostle tea spoons made in england .
One of Nock’s most notable contributions to the development of firearms was the invention of his ‘Patent Breeching’ renaisance design dining table made .
It was too expensive a refinement ever to have been adopted for military firearms, but it drew attention to the advantages obtained by more rapid and more efficient explosion of the charge german 1930 furniture value .
It had been known for some time that if, instead of the ordinary flat-surfaced breech-plug, a special type known as a `chamber-plug’ was fitted, a more powerful explosion resulted antique double pedestal dining room table . In this form of breech the diameter of the powder chamber was slightly less than the bore of the gun, and the breech end was a rounded hollow cut out of the breech-plug 5″ antique rectangular drop leaf table with drawer . From the centre of this hollow was drilled a narrow channel, called the `ante-chamber’, which received a portion of the powder and which connected at right angles with a vent running outwards to the touch-hole of the gun antique brass mirror convex eagle . The idea was that the flame
from the touch-hole, instead of igniting a corner of the charge, “antique furniture” - writing bureau and display cabinet .9
passed through the ante-chamber and through the centre of the powder, thereby igniting all of it at the same moment 17th century antique trinket boxes . The greater power of the explosion resulted in a higher initial beilby glass prince of wales feathers newcastle . velocity of the bullet; in other words, the full force of the powder was exercised in a shorter distance types of bureaux . It was therefore possible to use a shorter barrel; and the barrels of ‘chambered’ pieces were from six to ten inches shorter than those of firearms with the normal pattern of breech characteristics of english medieval gateleg table .
The disadvantage of the ‘chambered’ gun was that the flame had to travel down the touch-hole vent and thence through the ante-chamber before it reached the main chamber; a considerably longer distance than the usual direct contact between touch-hole and charge cabriole leg demilune table . The flintlock already suffered from the delay between pressure on the trigger and ignition of the charge antique oval drop leaf dining table with turned legs . In ‘chambered’ guns it was much greater, and the sportman had little chance of hitting a fleeting target art-deco-1920-1930-wood .
Nock’s feat was to invent a breech which produced the same power as one fitted with the chamber-plug, and yet with less delay between the fall of the cock and the explosion than was experienced with the ordinary flintlock breech antique rectangle drop leaf table cabinet .
Instead of a hollow the Nock breech-plug had a deep cavity cut in it to receive the charge antique french cabriolet dresser . The rounded end of this cavity was connected by a very short passage to a wide ante-chamber cut through the breech-plug from one side to the other art decos exotic bronze chair . One end of this ante-chamber was closed by a screw, to give access for cleaning, and the other by a gold or platinum plug drilled in the centre with the touch-hole 18th century drum tables . Since in loading some powder fell through into the ante-chamber, and the passage separating it from the main chamber was only about -at inch, the touch-hole was as in close effective contact with the charge as in the conventional breech antique walnut dining table 10 foot . Furthermore, the powder in the ante-chamber was so closely confined that it exploded as soon as the flame from the priming powder reached it, instead of being set on fire first as in the normal piece turn a silver tray into a table .
The vast improvement in the performance of flintlock weapons which was effected by Nock’s invention has been rather overshadowed by Forsyth’s more efficient solution of the same problem with the percussion lock english antique trays .
SWORDS IN THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Progress towards the standardization of swords throughout the Army was far slower than in the case of firearms jean rene prou furniture . Regulation patterns for musket, carbine and pistol had been introduced in the reign of King James II; but it was not till near the end of the eighteenth century that there was Army uniformity of swords 19th c english tin glazed pottery . Long before that there must have been similarity in the swords carried by regiments of the same arm of the Service because there was bound to be a limit to the number of types which the swordsmiths turned out, and these types would conform in general to popular military demand clock singer music candlesticks . Variations between regiments, therefore, would be chiefly minor modifications of the normal type in accordance with the taste of* the Colonels sofa carved top rail . The officers’ swords would tend to differ much more than those of the men, because being more expensive and privately purchased there would be little difficulty in satisfying even the most exotic requirements chinese porcelain decorators . But two factors would tend to preserve some uniformity: firstly, the Colonel of a regiment would often, probably, insist on his officers being armed alike; and secondly, the fashion of the moment is a very powerful factor, particularly amongst very young men value of primitive antique work bench .
After the end of Queen Anne’s wars on the Continent infantry soldiers still seem to have been armed with the hanger 19th century empire daybed . It appears, however, to have been exceedingly unpopular; probably because the possession of a bayonet would make a sword seem an unnecessary encumbrance meissen cris de paris . Several infantry units seem to have stopped wearing swords altogether, for on the 1st December 1724 an order was issued to the Army which by its wording inferred a widespread irregularity biedermeier candelabra . The order read:
`The King is determined to have all the N what is a double gate leg table .C macassar ebony furniture .O ironstone ware japanese willow .’s and men of His foot forces wear swords antique round dining tables with extensions .’
Nevertheless Authority was fighting a losing battle gothic arch furniture . Once the fighting troops have decided that a particular piece of equipment serves no useful purpose there is little chance of its being carried on active service weimar germany china antique . By the middle of the century many regiments had far less than their proper complement of swords, and some had none at all makers of antique table clock with music in china .
At some period Grenadier companies were given basket-hilted swords, instead of the usual brass-hilted hangers wardrobes 19th century . The Grenadiers of the 4th Foot (later The King’s Own Royal Regiment) had them in 1727, those of the 40th Foot were wearing them in about 1750, and a water-colour by Sandby shows the Grenadiers of the Coldstream wearing straight steel basket-hilted swords in 1747•
There does not seem to have been any material change during the- first half of the eighteenth century in the type of swords carried by infantry officers refectory table . In 1746 those of the 4th Foot had a steel hilt, and the scabbard was leather with steel mounts antique deco tub chair .
A typical cavalry sword of 1750, carried by both Horse and Dragoons, had a straight single-edged blade and a full basket-hilt 20th century furniture development in france . The pattern of basket-hilt varied from regiment to regiment, and those of the King’s Own Regiment of Dragoons, for instance, were of brass french animal chairs . The 3rd and 4th Irish Horse, instead of a straight blade, had one which was curved and slightly shorter than the normal kommode roentgen . The length of the blade was 31-1 inches and the breadth 1j inches gilt metal mounted pier table .
There is a Dragoon sword of about 1742 which is of interest as probably being of a fairly typical general pattern, and yet with distinctive regimental characteristics octagon mahogany antique table value . The blade is straight with a single edge and a length of thirty-six inches john walton antiques . The hilt is iron, but only half basket, and with a fishskincovered hilt bound with twisted brass wire how much would an antique clawfoot dresser cost . From the hilt hangs a buff leather sword knot with runner and tassel value of silver candelabra . The scabbard is of black leather, carried in a frog suspended from a shoulder belt 1980 scandinavian leather chair recliner barcelona .
In 1735 the drummers of the 8th Dragoons were distinguished by carrying scimitar swords; and in 1754 special swords were used to denote rank in the Royal Dragoons: brass-hilted swords being issued to serjeants and corporals 16th cent. sideboard .
When in 1755 a Light Troop was added to each regiment of Dragoon Guards and Dragoons on the British establishment, the Royal Warrant laid down that the men were to have `a short cutting sword 34 ins picture of pennsylvania house antique cherry buffet claw feet . long in the blade with a light hilt without basket’ penwork italian . This regulation was typical of the time in that it gave a very general specification and ample scope to Colonels of regiments to choose what they wished antique mahogony carved dressing table . The blade could apparently be either straight or curved and the hilt of any pattern so long as it was light and without a basket antique draw leaf tables . Captain Hinde, in his The Discipline of the Light Horse, deals with both the Light Troops and the subsequent regiments of Light Dragoons, the first of which was raised in 1759 confidante sofas . It is unlikely that there was very much change in the Light Dragoon sword between the time the Light Troops were raised and the formation of the Light Dragoon regiments; but at the time Hinde wrote the sword blade had been lengthened to thirty-seven inches old silver lustre myott . Hinde’s description of the swords carried by officers and men is given in Chapter V, and it will be- noted that the pattern of sword was still left to the choice of the commanding marquetry inlaid trays . officer seated harlequin with a tankard, johann kandler . An illustration in Hinde’s book shows a trooper of a regiment of Light Dragoons armed with a straight-bladed double-edged sword, with no hilt protection other than counter curved quillons indian antique tea kettles . In addition to the mounted pattern, officers apparently had a special sword for parades on foot verlys france . Of these Hinde says: ‘The Officers Parade Swords for Foot Duty, are about 28 Inches Long in the Blade, and worn in a Belt round the Waist’ antique side chair desk . Even the length of swords, however, does not always seem to have complied with regulations french 18th century bureau cabinet . Of his own regiment, the Royal Foresters, Hinde says: `Their Swords were remarkably Long, and quite straight’ makers of 1940’s american art deco furniture .
Farriers did not carry swords antique fold over table . According to Hinde: ‘They carry an Ax at their Left Side in a Belt of the same Colour of the Mens over the Right Shoulder, and a White Apron rolled back on their Left Side jupe patent extending dining table . When the Men draw their Swords, the Farriers take their Axes from, their Sides, and place the Handle on their Right Thighs Advanced, with the Edge turned towards their Horses Heads; they might carry a Saw on their Right Sides, in a Belt over the Left Shoulder, and a Spade in a flat Bucket under the Right deco tub chair . Budget, like the Carbines coming under the Right Arm art deco antiques contemporary world paris .’
Captain Hinde’s remarks on weapons may be fittingly concluded with his method of preventing arms from rusting antique american empire card table with scroll feet . This is as follows:
` antique furniture empire chest of drawers .d Receipt to keep Zrms from Rust nouveau art draws .
‘One Ounce of Campshire to Two Pounds of Hogs-Lard, Dissolve them together and take off the Scum; Mix as much Black-Lead as will bring them to an Iron Colour: Rub your Arms over with this, and let it lie on Twenty-four Hours, then Clean them as well as possible with a Linen Cloth, and they will keep without the least Rust for Six Months fold over tea table .’
The Royal Warrant of 1768, which dealt in detail with the clothing and equipment of the Army, made some attempt to secure reasonable uniformity in swords value staffordshire engine turned redware teapots 18th century . It laid down that the swords of each regiment were to be uniform and proscribed patterns and colours for sword-knots, belts, etc 19th century antique hall table ., and gold or silver coloured metal for hilt and scabbard appointments, according to the colour of the buttons old fashioned table brass metal claw feet on casters .
As regards the rank and file of the infantry the Warrant recognized what was practically a fait accompli empire card table . It said:
‘SWORDS antique card table withe one flap .
`All the Serjeants of the Regiment, and the whole Grenadier Company, to have swords spanish table antique turned legs . The Corporals and Private Men of the Battalion Companies (excepting the Regiment of Royal Highlanders) to have no Swords 16th century english joyned table .’
The Royal Highlanders (42nd Foot, or Black Watch) were presumably excepted because, like the Grenadiers, they wore the broadsword with basket hilt chippendale pinecone . The privilege was not appreciated, however, and the 42nd got into hot water for discarding their swords on the pretext that bayonets had proved far more useful in the American War 18th century antique gate leg table . However, the 42nd’s opinion of infantry swords seems to have received support from senior officers with war experience, for in 1783 they were given permission to return their swords to store french cabriole leg tracing pattern . The following year a Board of General Officers, which had been established to examine the soldier’s equipment in the light of the war in America, reported that Grenadiers had never worn their swords in action and recommended their abolition 19 century mahogany gateleg table . As a result swords were abolished throughout the infantry for all rank and file except drummers antique pottey work table . For these latter, the Royal Warrant of 1768 had specified ‘a short sword with a scimitar blade’; which was, in point of fact, a hanger vintage cherry table with queen ann legs .
Somewhat paradoxically the sword was about to become the principal weapon of the infantry officer at about the same time as it was being withdrawn from the remaining rank and file maurice dufrene, design .
The changes in officers’ shaft weapons is somewhat complicated 18th century occasional table . At the beginning of the eighteenth century captains and lieutenants of infantry had pikes and ensigns find 1954 crystal green tinted wine glasses . half-pikes telescopic table pedestal . In 1710, or thereabouts, captains reverted to the spontoon yuan muhammadan blue . At possibly the same time the lieutenant’s weapon was changed to a half-pike antique hanging corner display cabinet . In 1743 all officers of foot were directed to carry spontoons s s meissen mark . The spontoon was then the infantry officer’s principal weapon; but not, it seems, a very popular one gabriel viardot . That some difficulty was experienced in making officers carry it is shown by the following extract from an order book of the Brigade of Guards stationed in Germany in 1761-2:
`28th April rectangular table dressing . Colonel Thomas having remarked that the use of the espontoon is grown into a kind of disuse amongst the Officers of late, the naked sword or firelock being substituted in its room (a liberty which never used or ought to be allowed but upon emergencies), desires it may be resumed on all occasions in the Coldstream Battalion when it used to be!
The carrying of a ‘firelock’ was an adoption of the practice in Grenadier companies where all officers carried a light flintlock, generally a privately purchased weapon staffordshire figure prince “zebra” .
The American war finally dealt the death blow to the officer’s spontoon antique vargueno . Of the 63rd Foot in 1784, for instance, the Inspecting General commented: ‘Just arrived from America, where the officers never made use of espontoons; saluted with swords’ antique buffet sideboard signed by cabinet maker . Two years later the carrying of spontoons by infantry officers was abolished century pembroke .
Serjeants carried halberds for practically the whole of the eighteenth century, but in 1792 they were directed to carry pikes instead scandinavian aesthetic . This order did not in the first instance 1940’s mahogany dining chairs .apply to serjeants of Grenadier and Fusilier companies who, like the officers, carried flintlocks, but later in the same year they too were ordered to carry pikes meissen porcelain bronze . Serjeants of Light companies, who also carried flintlocks, were permitted to continue to do so english ironstone pottery ltd .

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MUSKET AND PIKE
An attempt to produce some order in the manufacture of firearms had an odd terminological result. In the army of Piedmont, before the battle of Moncontour in 1569, there were so many sizes of bore amongst the arquebuses that ammunition supply became a difficult problem. To overcome this 7000 arquebuses were ordered of one calibre, and referred to as ‘harquebuze de calibre de Monsieur le Prince’. The type of arquebus which was made to comply with this order had a bore of 10 or 11, weighed 12 pounds and had a barrel length of 42 inches. It became so popular that its use on the Continent became very widespread, and it appeared in England during the last quarter of the sixteenth century.. The original cumbersome reference had been contracted by the soldiers to `Calibre du Prince’, and later simply to ‘Calibre’. This became anglicized as ‘Caliver’, and in 1578 the Tower of London had 7000 of them in store. They were matchlocks, rather. heavier than the previous pattern of arquebus, and about four feet ten inches in overall length. Eventually the term came to mean any firearm which was light enough to be fired without a rest. ‘Arquebus’ was then frequently applied to cavalry wheel-lock arms.
In 1595 the Trained Bands were ordered to exchange their bows for calivers and muskets, and by this time calivers formed part of the armament of every English infantry unit. In fact, in a levy for Ireland of the following year, the ’shot accounted for half the infantry, and of these three-quarters were armed with calivers and only one-quarter with muskets. The days of the caliver, however, were numbered; for, unlike the musket, its shot was too light to pierce heavy armour.
The musket was actually earlier in origin than the caliver, having been invented in about 1546, though its adoption in England was somewhat slow. It was, essentially, an improved form of matchlock arquebus, with a greater g rane and accuracy and firing a heavier
rang
It had a barrel 4 feet long, a bore of 8 or io, and was designed to penetrate the heaviest protective armour. Its weight was 2o pounds, and it was consequently necessary to support the barrel on a forked rest. The first type of musket seems to have been too cumbersome to use for anything except siege warfare, and the Duke of Alva has been stated to have been the first to adapt it for use in the field, in his campaign in the Netherlands in
1567. By the time of the Civil War the musket had been considerably lightened, and it was possible to use it without a rest.
In one respect the musket was destined to achieve undying
FIG. 41. A MATCH-BOX.
fame; for its name came to denote any shoulder firearm, and even ‘rifle’ is merely a shortened form of ‘rifled musket’.
One of the disadvantages of the matchlock was the match. In very wet weather it was liable to be extinguished. To give some protection a ‘match-box’ was introduced. This was a tube of pewter, latten or tin, about a foot long, with holes in the side to let in aif.
It was this difficulty with the .match which was responsible for the development of spark ignition. The first substance to be employed for this purpose was pyrites; a mineral which included a combination of iron and sulphur. The mechanism in which it was used was known as the ‘wheel-lock’, and was invented in Nuremberg about 1517. A fragment of pyrites was held in contact with a steel wheel which had a serrated

FIG, 42. WHEEL- LOCKS.
Top: A Wheel-lock Carbine, Elizabeth I. Bottom: A Wheel-lock Dag, Edward VI.
edge. The wheel was rotated by the release of a powerful V-spring attached to the lock plate. The resulting stream of parks was directed at the priming powder.
The spindle of the wheel had a square end, and the lock was set by fitting a key, or spanner, to the spindle and winding it in a clockwise direction. This pulled a short chain of about three links round the spindle, and tautened the spring. After a three-quarter turn a scear (spring catch), which was fixed on the inside of the lock plate, engaged a slot on the wheel.
The flash-pan was then primed and closed. The bottom of the pan, however, was pierced to admit the top of the wheel. The piece of pyrites, which was held in a clamp at the head of the cock, was next lowered on to the top of the pan cover. Assuming it to have been loaded, the weapon was now ready for firing.
Pressure on the trigger drew back the scear and released the spring, causing the wheel to revolve. An ingenious device then caused the pan cover to open. A cam attached to the wheel spindle struck an arm which was connected to the pan cover. This opened the latter, permitting the pyrites to fall on the wheel. The pan cover was then held open by a spring catch.
The wheel-lock was, as may be imagined, an extremely
FIG. 43. WHEEL-LOCK DAGS.
expensive firearm to make, particularly when compared with the simple matchlock. Its adoption in England was consequently slow, and it never became a general issue to the infantry. It was a very useful lock, however, for a horseman. The management of a matchlock on horseback was a difficult feat, for the match had to be kept alight and any adjustments made to it with one hand.
The first single-handed firearms were intended for the horse soldier. These were the dags or tacks, the forerunners of pistols. The first dags were, in appearance, small arquebuses with wheel-locks. In 1544 they were introduced into England as a cavalry weapon.
The wheel-lock, also known as a firelock, suffered from two disadvantages; the first was the expense, and the second the weakness of the pyrites, which was liable to break into pieces. The demand for a sound and inexpensive method of spark transmission led to the introduction of the flintlock. The name originally given to this new mechanism was ’snaphaunce’. This was derived from the Dutch snaphaan, meaning a pecking fowl, and referred to the pecking motion of the cock.
The sparks in the flintlock were produced by striking a piece of flint against a case-hardened steel plate, with serrated ridges on its face. The flint was held in- a clamp at the top of the cock. The ’steel’, against which the flint was struck, worked on an arm which was hinged to the lock plate and held in position by a V-spring. To fire the weapon the cock -was drawn back, thereby compressing the main spring, which in turn actuated an internal tumbler connected to the cock. The scear engaged the tumbler and held the cock in the fully open position. The steel was then lowered towards the rear of the piece and on to the lip of the flash-pan; bringing it within range of the cock. Pulling the trigger drew back the scear, thereby releasing the cock; with the result that the flint struck the steel, directing a stream of sparks into the pan. This last was uncovered, during the forward movement of the cock, through a tumbler actuating a steel link which thrust against the lower part of the pan cover.
This type of flintlock was complicated and still fairly expensive. It was little used in England, though some of the troops ordered to Ireland in i58o are said to have been armed with it. On the Continent, however, it was in common use for a long time. In England it was superseded in the first quarter of the seventeenth century by the so-called ‘English lock’ flintlock. This was a much better and simpler weapon than the original snaphaunce, and the mechanism remained basically the same for all future flintlock firearms.
In the English lock the steel and pan cover were combined in a single piece which was called the ‘hammer’. This consisted of a hinged pan cover which worked upon a screw set in the lock plate and held in either the open or closed positions by a V-spring. The steel, or striking surface, rose approximately at right angles in a curve from the free end of the cover. When the cock was released the flint hit the steel, causing a shower of sparks, and at the same time pushed the whole member back on the hinge, so uncovering the priming powder to the sparks. The firing mechanism was practically the same as that of the snaphaunce, but the weapon could be put at safety by raising the cock half-way and leaving the pan
FIG. 44. AN ARQUEBUS WITH SNAPHAUNCE LOCK.
closed. This “half-cock’ position was achieved by providing a notch on the tumbler in which the scear engaged.
On some English locks there was an additional safety device. This was a catch on the outside of the lock plate which engaged in a notch on the cock when it was in the `half-cock’ position. This type of safety-catch was called a dog-catch and locks so fitted were known as doglocks.
Although the term `snaphaunce’ seems to have been applied originally to those flintlocks with separate pan covers and steels, it appears to have been soon used, in the early seventeenth century, to denote all flintlocks.
The difficulty of managing a matchlock on horseback has already been mentioned. Nevertheless in about I 53o a modification of the arquebus was produced for this purpose. It was called a ‘Petronel’ or ‘poitrinal’, names derived from the French and signifying that the weapon was intended to be fired from the chest. It was shorter than the arquebus but of a large calibre, and, on account of its weight, was carried on a broad shoulder belt. As a matchlock it was a fairly impracticable weapon, and later -versions were fitted with wheel-locks.
Another horseman’s firearm was the dragon. This was something between a petronel and a pistol. Traditionally it had a. dragon’s head at its muzzle, and it is supposed to have given its name to the French Dragons (Dragoons), first raised by Charles de Cosse, Marechal de Brissac, in 1600. Of the later and similar English troops, Markham, in his Souldier’s
FiG. 45- PETRONELS.
Acidence of 1645, says: ‘The last sort of which our horse troopes are composed are called dragoons, which are a kind of footmen on horsebacks, and do now indeed succeed the light horsemen, and are of singular use in all actions of warre. The armes defensive are an open head piece with cheeks, and a good buffs coat, with deeps skirts; and for offensive armes they have a faire dragon fitted with. an iron works, to be carried in a belt of leather, which is buckled over the right shoulder and under the left arms, having a turnill of iron work with a ring, through which the piece runnes up and downs; and these dragons are short pieces of sixteen inches the barrell, and full musquet bore, with firelocks or snaphaunces, also a belt with a flaske, pryming box, key, and bullet bag, and a good sword.’
In the heavy horse petronel and dag were succeeded in due course by carbine and pistol. The difference between a pistol and a dag is, however, not very clear. Weapons which we should normally call pistols were often called dags in England and tacks in Scotland in the early seventeenth, and, in the case of the latter, eighteenth centuries. Owing to their small size,. and consequent popularity as a personal weapon; pistols from very early days seem to  have expressed tastes in design and decoration of different gunsmiths. In addition, there have
FIG. 46. A DRAGON.
frequently .been fashions in pistol design which gunsmiths have met in their own particular style: To describe all the pistols which have been used in war would, therefore, be quite beyond the scope of the present work. Nevertheless there are two special types which must be mentioned. The first of these is the screw-barrel pistol. This had a cannon-shaped barrel ‘which screwed off so that the charge could be loaded direct into the breech  piece. These enjoyed a great vogue during the reign of Charles I and for some time afterwards. The second is -one of the most famous pistols, or rather -family of pistols, ever made.. This was the Scottish all-metal pistol, which, as far as is known, was first made towards the end of the sixteenth century. The earliest one on record was manufactured byAlison of Dundee. The principal difference between the Scottish pistol and others was that the stock was made of steel or brass instead of wood. The butts of the earliest models had a fish-tailed end, and they were sometimes made of wood encased in, or mounted with, brass or silver.
The early seventeenth-century carbine, according to a 1630 book on cavalry by Captain Cruso, was the same length as an arquebus but had a smaller bore. It was a flintlock, and it was slung from a shoulder belt by a swivel.
There were two disastrous expeditions during the reign of Charles 1, the failure of which was to some extent due to defective firearms. In the force sent to Cadiz, in fact, the majority of the firearms are said to have been either defective or useless. As a result of these deficiencies a special Commission under the Privy Seal appointed a select committee of gunmakers, arniourcrs, pikemakers and bandolier makers, `being the skillfullest and prime workmen of this land’, to undertake an investigation into the arms of the national militia and Trained Bands and to rectify any deficiencies. The London gunmakers mentioned as being on the Commission were Henry Rowland, Richard Burrowe, Thomas Addis, John Norcott, William Dawstin, John Watson and William Graves. These gunmaker members were temporarily vested with powers of proving and testing firearms.

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The pike was quickly followed by a number of other shafted weapons, all of which owed their origin to it, and all for the use of the foot soldier. The linstock was intended for the artilleryman. It consisted of a pike with the addition of lateral branches on each side of the head, sometimes terminating in bird’s or serpent’s heads. These latter were intended
FIG. 12. PARTIZANS.
Edward IV; C. 1500., Henry VIII; German, c. x61o; James 1.
to hold the match for firing cannon. Previously the cannoneer had had to discard his pike in order to apply the match to the touch-hole, and was frequently slain in the process. The linstock ensured that he remained armed.
The partizan was originally something like a pike with lateral projections at the base of the blade. The blade later became longer, flatter and more ornamental, and often gilt and covered with elaborate engraving. As a mediaeval weapon it had a comparatively short practical life. After the reign of Henry VIII its use seems to have been confined to ceremonial occasions and for the arming of bodyguards.
The spontoon had a flat blade like the partizan, but it did not have the projections at the base. It had a much shorter staff than the pike, and was intended for use in closer combat,
FIG- 13. SPONTOONS.
Tower of London.
The halbert was more akin to the bill than the pike, and it has been suggested that its name is derived from the German Halb-Barthe, meaning ‘half battle-axe’. In form it was something like a pike with an axe-head mounted immediately below the pike blade; so that it could be used either for cutting or thrusting.

Swords were, of course, used at Hastings. It would be difficult to cite any pre-twentieth_century battle in which they were not carried into action. They are, by tradition, the most honourable weapon of all. the very symbol of the profession of arms.
Saxon swords were of two kinds, both being of iron; about three feet in length, and straight. One of these was double-edged and very sharp. It had no guard, not even a simple crosspiece. The other was very similar, but it had a cross-piece as a

FIG. 14. HALBERTS.
Henry VII; Henry V111; Edward V1-, Mary.
guard, and a pommel which was sometimes foliated. The hilts of these swords were generally of wood covered with leather, horn or bone. The sword hilts of some of the greater or wealthier nobles, however, were frequently covered with plates of gold or silver.
The Norm in swords can be seen on the early Royal and baronial seals, and a very similar type was used throughout the mediaeval period. The blade was long and tapering, double-edged, with a simple cross-piece guard to the hilt, either straight or curving towards the blade; the pommels being round or of various ornamental shapes. In the latter half of the fifteenth century the blades tapered to a very fine point, and the upper part was often gilt and engraved. These mediaeval swords were intended for either cutting or thrusting. The many carved effigies which remain in churches throughout the country afford abundant examples of the swords which were in fashion at different periods.

FIG. 15. SWORDS.
Henry V; Edward VI; Henry VII; 1495, engraved by
Albrecht Mirer; Henry VIII.
Saxon and Norman sword scabbards were generally of wood covered with leather, sometimes with bronze mounts. Later, scabbards of metal and cuirbouilli (boiled leather) made their appearance. From about the thirteenth century the mounts and chapel, or metal tips to the scabbard, were ornamental in shape and often heavily engraved.

FIG. 16. SWORD-BELTS.
Top row: A Septvans, Chartham Church, Kent; Brian Lord Fitzalan of Bedale, from Bedale Church, Oxford; Brass of Sir John de St. Quentin, Bransburton Church, Yorkshire. fiddle row: Sir Walter Arden, Aston Church, Warwickshire; Detail of Belt in previous illustration; Brass of a Knight in Laughton Church, Lincolnshire. Bottom row: Mode of fastening Sword-belt, fifteenth century, from• Viollet-le-Duc; Brass of John Cray at Chinnor, Oxfordshire. Ann. 1390. Sword-belt, Queen Elizabeth.

FIG- 17- SWORDS.
Top row: Edward IV-, Henry VI; Henry VII; Henry VII; Henry VIII; Queen Elizabeth. Middle row: Queen Elizabeth; Queen Elizabeth; Queen Elizabeth; Queen Elizabeth; Henry VIII. Bottom row-. Queen Elizabeth; Henry VIII; Henry VIII; Henry VIII-, Queen Elizabeth-, Sword of Wolfgang Wilhelm, Count Palatine of the Rhine, 1614-

The bow was well known, of course, to the Saxons, but it was used by them far more for hunting than for war. It was the Normans who showed on an English battlefield what a formidable weapon it could be. Nevertheless, even for the Normans the bow was very much of an auxiliary weapon, and it is surprising what a small part it played in warfare for two and a half centuries after the battle of Hastings.
The bows of the eleventh century    Thirteenth century;
were short, stretching only from head    Fourteenth century.
to knee, and they had nothing like the power of the later bows which were to make the English archers so famous. It was Edward III who raised a disciplined force of archers, probably owing to a shortage of heavy horses for men-at-arms, and thereby revived infantry as a factor on the battlefield. The shooting power of these new troops was demonstrated to an astonished Continent at the battle of Crecy in 1346.
The English archers were armed
with a bow measuring six feet or more,
and made chiefly of yew, but sometimes
of ash, elm or witch-hazel. The bow-
string was of hemp, flax or silk. The
standard arrow, the ‘cloth-yard shaft’,
was made of ash, oak, birch or one or
two other woods. The point was of
burnished steel, and it was winged
with feathers from the grey goose; or sometimes the peacock,
the swan or other birds. The bow was generally carried in a case to protect it from the weather and to stop it from warping.
That bows and arrows were adequate both in quality and numbers’was always of concern in mediaeval times. In 1405, for instance, it was found that faulty heads had been made for arrows and quarrels. As a result a statute was promulgated directing that, ‘All the Heads for Arrows and Quarrels after this Time to be made, shall be well boiled or brased, and

FIG. 20. CRAPES.
Henry VIII, Dagger Sheath; Henry VIII, Sword Sheath;
1321 Sword Sheath from effigy in Hereford Cathedral,
hardened at the Points with Steel’ ; and also that, ‘E very Arrow head and Quarrel be Marked with the Mark of him that made the same’. During the latter part of the fifteenth century there was apparently a constant shortage of bowstaves. In 1472 it was decreed that any merchant ship coming from a foreign city, town or country, which had at any time sent bowstaves into England, was to bring four bowstaves with every ton of merchandise. In 1483 there was some trouble with the Lombards, who had been guilty, apparently, of supplying very poor bowstaves, and of profiteering in them as well. They were cnsequently required to include ten good bowstaves free of charge with every butt of wine imported into England.
It was a long time before hand firearms replaced the long bow in England. In the hands of the English archers the latter was a far more accurate weapon than the early and primitive firearm; and it excelled it, too, both in range and rate of discharge. It was not till the sixteenth century was well advanced that the bow was finally superseded; and this was due more to the shortage of trained archers than to superiority in the firearms of the day. It took practice from youth up to train an archer, and in the hey-day of archery it was practised on every village green. But the spread of firearms and their use for sport inevitably resulted in a growing dearth of young men who could draw the long bow. Henry
VIII did his best to keep up.
the standard of archers. In    Left: Steel Sheath, Henry VIII. a statute of i Sog he forbade Right: Copper Sheath, Elizabeth I.
the use of gun or crossbow except under special licence from the King; and in a further statute of 15 11 he required every man under the age of forty to provide himself with bow and arrows and to practise shooting with the long bow.
At the battle of Flodden the bow was still the principal missile weapon of the infantry, but the use of firearms was already increasing rapidly. In 1537 Henry VIII recognized the inevitable, and granted a patent to the overseers of the Guild of Saint George (now the Honourable Artillery Company) by which they and their successors were authorized to establish a perpetual fraternity or guild of artillery and ‘to exercise themselves in shooting with the long-bow, crossbow, and hand-guns’.

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