Collecting old shotgun locks and lockplates
Willkommen
Bienvenido Bienvenue Valkommen Welkom Benvenuti
A big Welcome to you, for getting
this far. I call myself lockplateman. I live in Welling,
just outside London, England.
I have been collecting British shotgun locks and lockplates for many years, and
now that I am retired I am trying to improve my collection. I am also
researching into methods of manufacture, makers of shotgun locks, patents,
registrations of designs, patterns and gauges used by gun lock makers etc.
My shotgun lock collection
At
present the collection consists of just over a thousand pieces, varying from
pairs of good quality locks, down to single lockplates of poor quality without
any mechanical parts. Because I have many locks and lockplates without names, I
now only collect pieces with names, so that I have some information to identify
and list each item. Unlike some specialist collectors, I am collecting all
types of British locks from sporting guns, throughout the ages, as long as they
have a name engraved on the lockplate or have some special feature. Most of the
specimens are slightly rusty, having been set on one side by various gunsmiths,
in case they might be useful one day. Many decades later, I have been able to
persuade some of these gunsmiths that these old locks should be in my collection,
rather than slowly rusting away in their scrap boxes.
The main types of locks down through the years are: - Matchlock, Wheel lock,
Flintlock, Percussion Lock, Pin fire Lock, and Center fire. The Center fire method of
detonation is found in modern Boxlock or Sidelock type shotguns.
Boxlocks have their firing mechanisms within the shotgun, and therefore do not feature
in my lock collection. Gun makers were always trying to improve the speed and
reliability of ignition of their shotguns, so there are many other types of
locks spread throughout these main types. Such locks include: - Tube lock, Patch
lock, Roller Primer Lock, Pellet Lock, etc.
Views of
some shotgun locks in my collection
Non rebounding hammer gunlock, by E. & F.G Dodson (c.1867)
Inside view of the above lock.
External view of un-named Birmingham lock.
Inside view of the matching lock to the one above.
Pair of detachable locks for a shotgun by Westley Richards.
Please click on the following links to see more:
my son's
German notgeld (emergency money) collection.
my other
son's beer label collection.
Please email me at the following address:
(Page last amended October 2000)