Beschreibung:

A FINE PAIR OF 25 BORE FLINTLOCK DUELLING PISTOLS BY TWIGG, LONDON, CIRCA 1785-88 with browned twist octagonal swamped sighted barrels signed in block capitals, case-hardened breeches inlaid with a pair of engraved gold lines, gold-lined vents, stamped with London proof marks and one with the barrelsmith's initials 'TP' beneath, engraved case-hardened tangs fitted with standing back-sights, stepped bevelled locks signed in first form of signature and engraved with a sunburst, fitted with bolt safety-catches also engaging the steels, gold-lined rainproof pans, rollers, blued detents, blued mainsprings, set triggers, highly figured walnut half-stocks with finely chequered butts (light bruising, minor scratches), engraved blued steel mounts comprising spurred trigger-guards with pineapple finials and ramrod-pipes, silver vacant shield-shaped escutcheons, silver barrel bolt escutcheons (one cracked, barrel bolts with chips), horn fore-end caps, with one original steel-tipped and an associated horn-tipped ramrod, retaining much original finish, and in untouched condition throughout: in original mahogany cased lined in red baize (the interior worn, the lid slightly warped), the lid with flush fitting carrying handle and rectangular escutcheon engraved 'Captain Coghlan Royal Navy, and with a steel bullet mould 25.5cm; 10in barrels Jeremiah Coghlan (1774/5-1844), naval officer, was in January 1796 mate of a merchant ship at Plymouth, and on the occasion of the wreck of the East Indiaman Dutton displayed such energy and courage that Pellew offered to put him on the Indefatigable's quarter-deck. He continued for three years in the Indefatigable and in March 1799 followed Pellew to the Impétueux. In June 1800 Coghlan was put by Pellew in command of the cutter Viper, and while watching Port Louis proposed to cut out a French gun-vessel at the entrance of the harbour. Pellew lent him a ten-oared cutter, and in this, with eighteen men and a midshipman - Silas Hiscutt Paddon - on the night of 29 July, he boarded the gun-brig Cerbère and after a hard fight captured her 'within pistol-shot of three batteries, surrounded by several armed craft, and not a mile from a 74 bearing an admiral's flag, and two frigates' (E. Pellew, Despatch). Both Coghlan and Paddon received several severe wounds, six of Coghlan's men were wounded, and one was killed; but the Cerbère was taken and towed out under heavy fire from the batteries. The squadron, to mark their admiration, gave up the prize to the immediate captors; and Pellew, in his official letter to Lord St Vincent, emphasized the courage and skill 'which … effected so daring an enterprise' (ibid.). St Vincent, in forwarding Pellew's letter to the Admiralty, praised the achievement and in a letter to Pellew privately asked him to present to Coghlan a sword of 100 guineas' value. On St Vincent's representation, Coghlan, though he had served in the Navy for only four and a half years, was promoted lieutenant on 22 September 1800 and continued in command of the Viper until she was paid off in October 1801. In spring 1802 he was appointed to the cutter Nimble, and on 1 May 1804 was promoted to command the sloop Renard on the Jamaica station. On 20 March 1805 he brought to action the French privateer Général Ernouf, which, after an action of thirty-five minutes, was set on fire and blew up with the loss of upwards of a hundred men. In August 1807 Coghlan was moved into the brig Elk on the same station, and for nearly four years was senior officer of a light squadron for the protection of the Bahamas. He was promoted captain on 27 November 1810 but continued in the Elk until the following summer. In September 1812 Coghlan was appointed to the Caledonia as flag captain of Pellew, then commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean. At the end of 1813 he exchanged into the frigate Alcmène and continued in her until the end of the Napoleonic wars. On 4 June 1815 he was nominated a CB, and from 1826 to 1830 commanded the