Beschreibung:

A FINE 20 BORE OVER-AND-UNDER FLINTLOCK TRAVELLING PISTOL BY J. EGG, NO. 1 PICCADILLY, LONDON, NO. 2227, CIRCA 1820-35, WITH PRESENTATION INSCRIPTION TO BARON OSTEN FROM LIEUTENANT COLONEL BROTHERTON with browned twist sighted barrels, signed in gold letters on the top flat of the upper barrel and engraved with the address in script on the lower, the upper breech decorated with a shaped gold band and the lower with a pair of lines (the breech scratched), platinum lined vents, engraved case-hardened tang incorporating the back-sight, decorated with flowers, foliage and scrollwork, signed locks engraved with scrolls, foliage and sunbursts, fitted with blued bolt safety-catches (incomplete), 'French' cocks (top-jaws and screws replaced), semi-rainproof pans, external blued mainsprings with rollers acting on the steels, figured walnut butt cut with a panel of fine chequering, engraved blued steel mounts comprising trigger-guard decorated with trophies of arms, butt-cap enclosed by a garland and with 'skull cracking' terminal, browned steel ramrod-pipe with retaining spring (detached), flower-shaped silver escutcheon engraved with presentation inscription, blued steel ramrod with chequered finial, and much early finish throughout: in contemporary fitted blackened oak case lined in green baize, the lid with rectangular flush-fitting brass carrying handle (one fastening stud missing), the inside with trade label of Collins, 12 Vigo Lane, Regent Street, and with some accessories including cleaning rod, turnscrew, bullet mould, and various spare parts in a leather pouch 18 cm; 7 1/8 in barrels The friendship symbolised by this pistol probably began during the Napoleonic war (1803-15). Its donor, Thomas William Brotherton (1785-1868), served in seven cavalry and five infantry regiments. First seeing action with the Coldstream Guards in Egypt in 1801, he served in the 3rd Foot Guards during the brief campaign in Hannover in 1805. As an officer in the 14th Light Dragoons, he fought during the Peninsular war from 1808 until 1813, being wounded at Salamanca in 1812 and at Nive in 1813, when he was captured. Remaining in the army after the end of the war, he occupied staff positions of increasing seniority and ended his career as a general, Knight Grand Cross of the Bath (GCB) and colonel of the 1st Dragoon Guards. His eventful life is summarised in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004). The recipient of this pistol, Wilhelm von der Osten, Baron Osten (1782-1852), was a Hannoverian nobleman. Joining the 13th Hannoverian infantry regiment in 1801, he was appointed lieutenant in the Hannoverian Life Guards in 1802. Upon the disbandment of the Hannoverian army following the French invasion in 1803, he travelled to Britain to become a lieutenant in the 1st Light Dragoons, King's German Legion, and served in Hannover in 1805. In November 1808, Osten secured a cornetcy in the Scots Greys and then, after ten days, a lieutenancy in the 16th Light Dragoons - with which he went to Spain to be present at the battle of Talavera in 1809. In September 1810, he was appointed extra ADC to Lieutenant-General Sir Stapleton Cotton (later Viscount Combermere), commander of the British cavalry, and in November 1810 became major of brigade in Colonel The Hon. George de Grey's brigade of heavy cavalry. In July 1811 he was transferred to the cavalry brigade commanded by his fellow-Hannoverian, Major General Victor von Alten, Baron Alten, and served in Alten's brigade throughout the remainder of the Peninsular war. Returning to regimental duty with the 16th Light Dragoons in 1814, he was with his regiment at the battle of Waterloo in 1815, where he was slightly wounded. Purchasing his captaincy in the newly designated 16th Lancers in 1816, Osten became a Knight of the Hannoverian Guelphic Order (KH) in 1819 and accompanied the regiment to India in 1822, being present at the siege and capture of Bharatpur in 1825. In May 1827 Osten survived an attack by