Length overall length 40cm (15.7in)
East India Company 1840 pattern percussion cavalry pistol, the 23cm, 0.68 calibre round barrel with London proof marks at the breech, sidelock stamped with East India Company crest - ‘A lion rampant guardant Or supporting between the forepaws a regal crown ppr’ (aka ‘The Cat with the Cheese’) - and crowned ’3' mark. Fully walnut stocked with brass trigger guard, flat butt cap with lanyard ring, swivel ramrod.
The ‘Percussion Cavalry Pistol’ was ordered in two batches by the East India Company in February and August 1840, both for the Bombay Presidency. It was the Company's first percussion pistol and was based closely on the 1820 flintlock pattern. The present example can be classified as one of the the earliest specimens from the profusion of inspection marks stamped on top of the breech. These include the crown over ‘GP’ (Gunmakers Proof) and crown over ‘V’ (Viewed) - indicating inspection and certification by the Proof House. On later examples most of the proof marks are placed out of sight below the breech.
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As previously noted the 1840 Pattern pistol was exclusively produced for the Bombay Presidency. It was issued to Bombay Light Cavalry, Bombay Horse Artillery, and possibly HM’s 4th Light Dragoons who were on the Bombay Establishment at the time. The 1840 Pattern is said to have been used in action by the irregular Scinde and Poona Horse during Napier’s Scinde Campaign of 1843. It continued in use alongside the 1843 Pattern as the handgun of the Presidency until the East India Company was taken over by the British home Government after the Bengal Mutiny in 1859. As such it may have been carried by the 3rd Bombay Light cavalry when it broke the Persian square at Khushab in 1856. Madras, by all accounts, was awash with earlier pattern flintlocks which remained in service by its army until the Company’s demise.
Foster, Wm., CIE (1924) ’The Archives of the Honourable East India Company’, JRSA, Vol 72, No 3711))
Harding, D., (2013) ‘Small Arms of there East India Company’, Vol 2, pp 302-308.