Single shot percussion pocket pistol

A single shot percussion pocket pistol with German silver foliate engraved frame, steel octagonal barrel engraved with an early version of Rosier's markings. While such pistols were common for protection during the 1850s and 1860s, the majority of them are often of rather more rudimentary quality, and relatively few are marked by local gun dealers.

This item has an additional local association, with its inlaid silver escutcheon engraved 'Vic Carriage Co.' The Victorian Carriage Company had their workshops located at the western end of Melbourne, at 163 Collins Street West, near Spencer Street, during the 1860s.

It is unusual that a regular workman would have not only acquired a higher grade of pistol, but would also have had their place of work engraved on it, suggesting that perhaps the item was owned by someone more intimately associated with the business.

One possible candidate is William Williams, a member of the Legislative Assembly for Latrobe Ward, and a coach and carriage builder, first at 91 Queen Street before moving to Collins Street West, who advertised in June 1866 that thereafter the business would be known as the Victorian Carriage Company. The business operated under Williams into the 1870s, though appears to have been sold and continued under this name at Punt Road, Windsor, from the mid 1870s onwards.