A mystery pistol masterpiece of design - but who made it?

[ccdjg]

I have putting this pistol on the back burner while, having been busy writing the second edition of my book. Now that is all sorted I would like to bring it out into the light of day and ask for identification opinions. Not long back I acquired the pistol as an old, rusty, garage find, and it had a design that I had never come across before. After dismantling and close inspection, I could say with some confidence that it was made in Britain, most likely in the 1920’s, or possibly early 1930’s, and was a prototype. It does have a maker’s mark, but I do not want to say anything about that at present, as there is the possibility that the inscription could be fake, and added later to in order to add value to an otherwise unknown gun. I want to present all the details about the pistol first, and then ask everyone’s opinion about a possible maker, prior to disclosing the inscribed name. In that way I can get an overall unbiased view.

This is the gun with the rust and dirt removed. The breech-surround is dovetailed for a rear sight, but the sight blade is missing, otherwise the pistol is complete and fully functional.



It is a concentric model, with a deeply rifled 0.177 steel barrel, and has a similar grip-cocking action to the Highest Possible, Tell 2, Acvoke and Thunderbolt Jr pistols. However, the design has many significant and highly inventive differences to those pistols, which can be summarized as follows:


1. Unlike the Highest Possible, Tell 2 etc., it is unique in not using the trigger guard as the cocking link. Instead the trigger guard is fixed and the pistol uses a separate forked link that straddles it.





The cocking link is skillfully forged from carbon steel as a single unit, and heat hardened. Such a precise forging would be something well beyond the capabilities of an amateur:



2. Again uniquely, the trigger guard is made of spring steel and its front end is fixed to the sear, so that it acts as the sear spring, and keeps the sear of the one-piece trigger/sear unit pressed against the piston. Both ends of the trigger guard are specially shaped, and they mesh beautifully with cut-outs sections in the sear and frame, as can be seen here (note that the sear pin has been removed):




The trigger guard can be removed easily if needed, by sliding it laterally out of the shaped slots, but once it is in place, no amount of longitudinal movement is ever going to make it come adrift. This deceptively simple method of fixing shows considerable machining skill and attention to detail. No screws or pins needed!

3. The breech closure is unique for an air pistol and consists of a swing down breech block, with a thumb-lever operated cam, so that any wear in the leather breech seal can be taken up by thumb pressure. This unit is both intricate and exceptionally well- engineered. Note that the breech block has a built-in pellet seater, and that both sides of the thumb lever have been chequered. Such attention to detail smacks of real professionalism.







4. Another innovative design feature is the spring loaded detent catch which locks the action rigidly in place (none of the other grip-cocking pistols have anything similar). Instead of being a normal type of detent, uniquely it is double-ended. The other end simultaneously applies spring pressure against the rear of the trigger, so that the detent unit serves two functions.





5. The air transfer unit also shows great attention to detail. The rear cylinder end has four air transport holes, and a steel plate that screws onto it has four sloping channels machined into it that guides the four jets of compressed air directly behind the pellet:






6. Unlike any other pistol I know of, the piston head with its leather seal is threaded into the piston body. This is an interesting refinement, but would have added to the complexity of the manufacturing sequence, and I don’t actually see what advantages it would have.




From an overall economy of design, I found the pistol to be quite amazing, and unlike any other I can think of. A LOT of thought has gone into it.

The whole pistol is held solidly together by the two grip plate screws. When the grip plates are removed, there are three large diameter pivot pins holding all the moving parts of the action together. One pin serves a dual function as pivot for the grip and for the trigger/sear. A second pin acts as the cocking link pivot, and the third pin is the pivot for the drop-down breech block. These pins are a sliding fit, and can be pushed out by hand, their large diameter ensuring there is no play, and when the grip pates are screwed in place, the pins cannot move. As a result, it is the only pistol I know where the action can be disassembled in just two minutes using only a screwdriver.
The piston and spring can be removed by unscrewing the cylinder front plug, which like the Acvoke has two holes to accept a pin spanner.

This shows the disassembled pistol and the locations of the three pins:





So my question is, given all these unique innovations in the design, the skilled workmanship in constructing the pistol, and the close attention to small details, who, or which company, do you think might have made it?

(For those of you who might already know the maker’s name inscribed on the gun, please don’t give the game away yet.)

Many thanks,
John