Pistol
This Tranter centre fire single shot pistol was used by Henry Irving in the role of Dubosc in The Lyons Mail. It was made around 1870. William Tranter was a noted English gun maker and designer who was apprenticed to the gunsmithing firm of Hollis Bros & Co. in Birmingham at the age of 14 in 1830. In 1839, he bought out the business of gun and pistol maker, Robert Dugard, and grew it significantly. In 1867, he completed the construction of a new factory in Aston Cross, which spread over an area of about four acres, called ‘The Tranter Gun and Pistol Factory.’ His guns also became popular in the America, with the beginning of the Civil War increasing demand for foreign weapons in the Confederate States.
