A RARE CASED 54 BORE TRANTERS PATENT FIVE-SHOT TRIPLE-ACTION PERCUSSION REVOLVER RETAILED BY COGSWELL AND HARRISON

A RARE CASED 54 BORE TRANTERS PATENT FIVE-SHOT TRIPLE-ACTION PERCUSSION REVOLVER RETAILED BY COGSWELL AND HARRISON, NO. 10,780T, CIRCA 1860, with sighted barrel signed ~W. Tranter Patentee~ on the flat and retaining some early blued finish, blued border-and foliate scroll-engraved frame serial numbered on the right, fitted with arbor pin with blued spring-catch, blued safety-catch, patent rammer, patent double trigger, blued cylinder, finely chequered walnut butt, iron trigger-guard and butt-cap each engraved with foliate scrolls: in original fitted oak case lined in blue baize, the lid with brass escutcheon engraved ~Capt. E. Hopton, 88th Regiment~ on the outside and with retailer~s trade label for post 1882 on the inside, with accessories including bullet mould (dented), copper powder-flask by James Dixon and Sons, turnscrew, oil bottle and loading rod, 15.1 cm barrel¦¦Tranter~s British patent no. 1913 of 1856 refers to a ~treble-action~ lock mechanism that could be thumb cocked and fired by the front trigger, cocked and fired by the use of the front trigger only, or cocked by the use of the cocking lever or lower trigger. See Stewart 2007, pp. 65-66.¦¦Lieutenant General Sir Edward Hopton KCB DL JP (1837 - 19 January 1912) was born in Bishops Frome, Herefordshire, the eldest son of the Reverend W.P. Hopton and his wife Diana. He was educated at Eton College and joined the Army in 1854, where he was commissioned into the 79th Foot. He fought at the Siege of Sevastapol (1854-5), the Siege of Lucknow (1857) and served latterly with the 88th Regiment of Foot (Connaught Rangers) during the 9th Xhosa War (1877-78). He became Colonel of the Connaught Rangers in 1895 and was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Jersey in the same year. He had some difficulty maintaining order on Jersey during the Boer War in the face of Pro-Boer attitudes of some of the French Islanders.