Interesting item. I wonder what happened to the rest of it?
Nothing in the pictures scream French but maybe they know something we don't. What is that extra 'hammer' I wonder? A sort of safety?
A somewhat interesting outside lock airgun. 13mm/.50 cal. Not sure how they know that it's French, other than being in France at the moment. Described as 18th century; certainly could be but the outside lock airguns had a long history from at least mid 18th century (and likely much earlier) till mid 19th century with, as far as known, little variation.
Scroll on down for some nice closeup pics
http://www.delcampe.net/page/item/id...anguage,E.html
Interesting item. I wonder what happened to the rest of it?
Nothing in the pictures scream French but maybe they know something we don't. What is that extra 'hammer' I wonder? A sort of safety?
Pity it's missing the air flask, but still a nice item to add to any collection.
I see no extra hammer. The large central "hammer" is the exhaust valve lever that pivots to strike open the exhaust valve when hit by the hammer located on the side. No visible safety.
This encyclopedia drawing is one of the best to show the internal mechanics of a typical outside lock airgun. The pivoting exhaust valve lever is seen in outline.
http://www.bmlisieux.com/images/marin002.jpg