Original 18th Century Flintlock Blunderbuss from St. Petersburg Russia Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. A truly unusual Flintlock Pistol from a source that is extremely rare. Here we have a signed Blunderbuss pistol marked ‘J. SCHUMANN’ and ‘1771’ on the Lock Plate and ‘J.SCHUMANN’, in gold, and ‘St. Petersburg’, in silver, on the 8 3/4′ iron Blunderbuss barrel that still shows evidence of fine bluing beneath the gold signature.

The mounts are carved brass and of particular interest is the front finial of the trigger guard which is very reminiscent of the Orthodox Russian Church Mitre Hats worn by their bishops and other high ranking clergy.

The entire wood stock is finely checkered and the general form is Germanic, which is not surprising as SCHUMANN was a German gun maker who moved to St. Petersburg at time when it was a prominent emerging market.

There is also a distinctive ‘Crimean’ influence in the overall design; this was the Southern area of Russia that Britain, France and Turkey went to war with Russia over just 80 years later.

A question that immediately struck us is why would any gun maker in Russia put ‘St. Petersburg? the Western name for the City, on a Pistol made there and not ‘Petrograd’ (later to become Leningrad in the early 20th Century), or whatever the Russians called the City in 1771.

The answer is, I am told, that like so many up and coming Cities of the time, the principal languages spoken by the high society were English or French and these were the potential monied customers, the peasants and lower classes were not considered as any sort of customer base for fine pistols.

‘J.H.SCHUMANN’ is listed in ‘Heer Der Neue Stocke’, 1979 Edition on page 1143, as having been active in ‘St. Petersburg/Leningrad’ during the 18th. Century.