"Excellent Cased Identified Pair of Double Barrel Percussion Pistol With Flip Bayonets (72456) 

Description:
"NSN. Made circa 1840. 51.5 Caliber with 5.5" barrels. This is a beautiful set of pistols by John William Edge. John William Edge was a Manchester gunsmith between 1827-1864. These guns are in superb condition with almost all of the original case colors on the barrels, actions and butt caps. The wood is excellent and the checkering is extremely sharp. The bayonets bright and has its original polish. The case for this pair of extraordinary pistols has ""W. BAYLEY ESQRE"" inscribed on the handle and ""STALY-BRIDGE"" below. William Bayley of Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, England, ran the Bayley Street Mills with his brothers and were cotton spinners and manufacturers. These pistols may have served as personal security for him during unrest during the economic depression in the early 1840s. In 1842, he cut wages for the mill workers contributing to the Chartist movement and the outbreak of the Plug Riots. The latter took its name from the strikers removing the plugs from the boilers in the factories to stop production. The local papers wrote of the ""Alarming Riots in Manchester and the Neighborhood"" and noted that ""the hands of Messrs. Bayley and Brothers of Stalybridge struck"" after their wages were reduced ultimately expanding to 8,000 to 10,000 spinners and weavers petitioning Parliament and contributing to the general strike throughout the country which included property damage and violence. Several people were killed before the general strike ended. Bayley was later elected the mayor of Stalybridge after it was incorporated in 1857. Shortly thereafter, the American Civil War heavily affected the production of England's factories, and his family suffered heavy financial losses, particularly because William Bayley & Brothers had built the new Clarence Mill which was ultimately sold off. Nonetheless, he was able to comfortably retire in 1863 and lived at his Stamford Lodge mansion. He still retained business ties and was among the investors in The Manchester & Liverpool District Banking Company in 1867. 


Price: $22,950.00