Flintlock Handgun IN A BOOK - Early 19th Century Book Gun - Espionage in the 1800s
Concealed Belles & Harrold Boxlock Flintlock Pocket Pistol Mounted Inside "A Complete History of Europe...for the Year 1707"
This is a very interesting piece: an early 19th century "BELLES &/HARROLD" signed boxlock flintlock pistol with Birmingham proofs that subsequently had its stock removed and then was mounted inside a tin container within a book. If the pistol is loaded and left at half-cock, it could be kept ready. Pulling the "trigger" on the top of the book out will pull back the arm inside the container and pull the cock to full-cock readying it to be fired. Pushing the trigger forward will then fire the pistol. The book is "A Compleat [sic] History of Europe: or, a View of the Affairs Thereof, Civil & Military, for the Year 1707..." listed as printed in 1709 in London. The first 112 pages remain normal, and the remainder are glued together to form a solid body around the metal case for the pistol. The muzzle is pretty much flush with the bottom of the pages. Hopefully it would only be needed once as a small explosion going off within a paper book and a muzzle flash right next to paper seems like a recipe for a fire akin to that time Aaron Burr lit himself on fire trying to light a candle with his flintlock.