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Please help ID, name and value this antique pistol

2K views 9 replies 8 participants last post by  Lou Smith 
#1 ·
Hello All!
Gun Revolver Starting pistol
Gun Revolver Firearm Starting pistol Trigger

I came across this antique pistol, a rather small pistol.
It has no markings except "ELG" in an oval.
What is this type of gun called, how old is it, where was it made
and what is its approximate value?
As always thanks all.
Lou
 
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#2 ·
The ELG is Belgian and it's a pin fire, folding trigger "perpperbox". The Pinfire was developed in France in the 1830's by Leaufecheux and was on the way out by the late 1870's if not a bit earlier. Regarding value, I'm sorry I don't know. My suspicion would be in the hundreds and not thousands.
 
#4 ·
I have to respectfully disagree with my esteem colleague ( Gosh, I always wanted to type that phase :) ). Nowadays, under the influence of the internet, price for these oddball guns have increased, at least to me, to a surprising high; what a few years ago would have been a 75 to 100 dollar gun have suddenly become a 3 to 4 hundred dollar gun on the onsite auction sites. Why? not sure why, but I see it happening. BTW, I believe the French called these type of firearms " Apache guns " . not for the American Indian tribe but for the French street gangsters . I read once where the name derived from, but it has been too long and my brain leaks unneeded information, oh well, as long as I can still remember where the bathroom is.
 
#8 ·
Guns that are shootable AND you can find ammo for are the most desireable, take one of those factors away and value can drop considerably. This pepperbox seems in decent condition but, alas, ammo would be next to impossible to find. If it is still tight, I agree with RJay and would expect it to bring $300 or so, but not much more.
 
#9 ·
The pictures are not the best so details can not be seen. The little guns with no barrels bring a premium over the ones with them. Some of these will get close to a thousand these days. This one looks a little rough to be that high. There are collectors of small pocket pistols and they can serious, do not ask how I know this.
 
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