British EIC P-1771 Brown Bess Flintlock Detached Lock

Original Item: These are all untouched un-cleaned but complete "Windus Pattern" British manufactured Brown Bess Musket Locks first introduced by the British East India Company in 1771, which continued in production until 1818. Please see the fabulous book collection- "Small Arms of the East India Company 1600-1856" by David Harding, Volume 2 page 28. This is exactly the same lock adopted by the British Board of Ordnance for the Third Model Brown Bess Musket of 1796 known as the "India Pattern" Brown Bess, except the lock markings of Tower and Crown over G.R. are different on the government model. These locks started life with East India Company Heart Logo Markings, up until 1808, together with makers name and year of manufacture and were "gifted" to Nepal as a result of the Treaty of Segully in December 1816. Although a few locks retained their original EIC markings the Nepalese remarked most of these locks with their own Coat of Arms- a well known Katmandu temple surrounded by two leaping tigers, however, all the locks marked in this fashion were indeed British made.

We offer these detached Brown Bess Flintlocks, each with the Ghurka Crest in exactly the condition in which we found them in the old Arsenal at Lagan Silikana in 2003. Each is covered in filth and rust but will clean up nicely with some TLC. We have cleaned a small portion of the lock plate