Mate dropped off this muzzle-loading shotgun today for me to admire for a while, one of the most interesting percussion guns I've seen in years. Hope you enjoy it too!

The gun is a single-barrel shotgun a little smaller than 12-bore, with solid silver furniture throughout. It's only real fault is a broken ear on the hammer, the ram-rod is missing (as usual!), and the iron has been let go a little at some stage.

This photo shows the lock-plate and conventional British period engraving. Complete with platinum pressure-plug of course. Top London maker too. Very nice.

Here is the lower guard and tang, showing the extent of the silver-smithing.

Here is a close-up of the hall-marks, hopefully someone here is familiar with these markings and can shed some light on the silver-smith or perhaps a rough date for when the work was done.

Ever seen a finial like this before? Sure beats the usual 'pine-apple'! I'm guessing it's a lotus. Spectacular! The silver-work is quite thick and heavy, probably amounting to a pound or so of solid silver in total!

Detail of the engraving on the trigger-guard.

Even the fore-end cap, or ferrule?, is more of the same, exquisitely engraved with rose boquet!

The butt-plate is another solid lump of pure silver....

Plain with border-engraving on the butt, although the hall-marks are once again prominent.

...and the butt-plate tang is simply magnificent!

Muzzle-loaders don't feature prominently in my collection, but after examining this marvellous example I'm beginning to re-think my priorities!