Tatham Guns.

It's beautiful . I wish it could talk , i can only imagine the stories it would have .

Haha yeah if only these objects could talk!

I have a lot of interesting stuff from the first and second world war as well, if only hey!

It would be a fun piece to find the origin of. A quick search shows a bunch of dueling pistols by a gunsmith named Tatham ,other images show markings with Tatham and Egg. Some of the working pieces may look different then images you may come across because the gun is so old and may have been repaired with unoriginal pieces.

Yeah I saw those pistols. I showed it to someone who seemed to think that at one point Tatham made guns for the royal family, but who knows.

I've only been able so far to find out that Tatham and Egg London made some high quality firearms, good enough that Lord Nelson (who smashed the French and Spanish at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805) owned a pair of Tatham pistols.

Good place to post it is on https://www.full-bore.co.uk/ - almost every angle on UK shooting is covered by someone there.

I presume it qualifies as an antique or deact, though I would advise getting it checked out just in case (back of Gunmart will list a dealer). Obviously don't try and fire it. On rare occasions these are sometimes loaded by grandad etc donkey's yrs ago and decades later everyone just assumes it isn't, so I would probably stick run a rod down it (carefully) and see how far it goes just in case.

Thanks for posting it regardless, very nice.

Yeah I'm sure it's unloaded. I've had a rod down it, and it's also clear in the part the hammer hits.

It came to me from someone who had spent a decent amount of time in the British Army and spent a long time around antiques, although evidently he never told me what he knew about it unfortunatly.

I'm also pretty sure it falls under the antique gun laws but yeah thats a good idea, I will get it checked. Funny isn't it, I've got two 12 gauge shotguns but this old thing might be illegal for me to own

Barrett57 wrote:

Yeah I'm sure it's unloaded. I've had a rod down it, and it's also clear in the part the hammer hits.

It came to me from someone who had spent a decent amount of time in the British Army and spent a long time around antiques, although evidently he never told me what he knew about it unfortunatly.

I'm also pretty sure it falls under the antique gun laws but yeah thats a good idea, I will get it checked. Funny isn't it, I've got two 12 gauge shotguns but this old thing might be illegal for me to own

Tell me about it. I currently own 9 Section 1 firearms at the moment (used to have even more) and yet I can't even handle my Dad's Brocock air pistol - which is Section 5 to everyone but him the historic owner and will be taken away and destroyed after his death. According to the Home Office and Police it can be converted into a real firearm, but then Iv'e ALREADY been approved for real firearms, so that makes about zero sense

But yeah, anyway, I can't imagine it isn't an antique, the only danger would be if it was a modern live firing repo. If you've already got a Section 2 for your shotguns then go a bit further and get a Sec 1 so you can fire it Edit: My bad, I assumed rifle. Obviously not applicable for a shotgun, doh.

https://londonstreetviews.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/joseph-egg-gunsmith/

Well I found out more about Tatham and Egg, not sure what time period this puts my gun?

"In 1801 he (Jospeh Egg) entered a partnership with one Walker at 59 Frith Street as “Gunmakers and Patent Spring Truss Makers”, but that same year he was also recorded as having being in partnership with Henry Tatham as Tatham & Egg at 37 Charing Cross. That partnership was dissolved on the 8th of September, 1814."

The partnership ended and Jospeh Egg carried on making guns, and so did Henry Tatham, when they died (both around the 1835 mark) their sons carried on making guns. Who both died in 1867 and 1869, after that i'm not sure what happened to their gun making businesses.

If the Tatham business ended in 1869 with Henry Thatham the seconds death, then that puts my gun at no later than 1869.

I also found out that Tatham guns did make firearms and swords for royalty: "He appears in 1808 as "Tatham and Egg, Gun-Makers and Sword-Cutlers to His Majesty, 37, Charing Cross", He made swords for George the Third (I'm sure you Americans know who that bloke was ) and Guns for the Prince of Wales.

Post it in the bizarre. You got paypal ?

I always wanted this one

Just one more thing before the thread goes, I forgot to mention that the government is looking at a lot of issues related to UK firearms at the moment. Talk of possibly banning or grandfathering .50 cal, MARS and Lever Release rifles, as well as licencing airguns in England and Wales (they already are in Scotland). Included in their talks as one of the biggest things is tightening up on antique firearms! If any of the above comes in it'll do so quite quickly - so just thought you should be aware of this (not sure if it'll apply to antique shotguns). Cheers.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/consultation-launched-on-laws-around-antique-firearms

Is there any kind of hunting that goes on over there ? What abnout archery?

Yeah quite a bit of hunting possible if that's your thing. Archery seems to be relatively popular from a target practice pov and of course doesn't carry the same stigma that guns do. There's a surprising amount of it in my area at least, and I know one of the schools up the road from me facilitates it for the kids in their summer games/sports day thing. However it's illegal to hunt with a bow or crossbow in the UK.

Eh it's a nothing piece of junk. But even though it's only worth 20 I'd gladly give you 5k since we're Internet buddies.... that thing is totally BITCHING! I'm jelly

Motocross83 wrote:

Yeah quite a bit of hunting possible if that's your thing. Archery seems to be relatively popular from a target practice pov and of course doesn't carry the same stigma that guns do. There's a surprising amount of it in my area at least, and I know one of the schools up the road from me facilitates it for the kids in their summer games/sports day thing. However it's illegal to hunt with a bow or crossbow in the UK.

illegal to hunt with a bow !!??

Motocross83 wrote:

Yeah quite a bit of hunting possible if that's your thing. Archery seems to be relatively popular from a target practice pov and of course doesn't carry the same stigma that guns do. There's a surprising amount of it in my area at least, and I know one of the schools up the road from me facilitates it for the kids in their summer games/sports day thing. However it's illegal to hunt with a bow or crossbow in the UK.

MR. X wrote:

illegal to hunt with a bow !!??

Cheers for the heads up motocross83.

And yeah, our laws are stupid. I have no problem with the law in regards to getting a firearm, the vetting process seems to be very good at stopping nutters and moronic chavs getting guns. It's the complete rubbish afterwards thats annoying.

Like motocross83, he's obviously responsible enough to own firearms, so why on earth should he be limited in what he can have once he's been vetted and approved?

Cuz he might go off the deep end and hurt the children?

Barrett57 wrote:

Cheers for the heads up motocross83.

And yeah, our laws are stupid. I have no problem with the law in regards to getting a firearm, the vetting process seems to be very good at stopping nutters and moronic chavs getting guns. It's the complete rubbish afterwards thats annoying.

Like motocross83, he's obviously responsible enough to own firearms, so why on earth should he be limited in what he can have once he's been vetted and approved?

"the vetting process seems to be very good at stopping nutters and moronic chavs getting guns. It's the complete rubbish afterwards thats annoying."


Couldn't agree more.

I don't want to risk derailing another harmless thread, so I'll leave well alone after this, but that's ^ pretty much the entirety of my stance on legal gun ownership within the UK. I believe in heavily vetting the individual you permit ownership to, not pointlessly banning a certain firearm because it was the chosen tool of someone sick in the head.