Pistols Fit For a King: Early Percussion Revolvers with Curatorial Assistant Christian Wellard

[@probower4726]

As much as we all love Jonathan, The Royal Armouries team has some great curators and presenters. Love your stuff guys

[@Fishdogfish]

Are you referring to Johnathan Ferguson, keeper of firearms and artillery at the Royal Armouries Museum in the UK, or some other Jonathan?

[@suzuzusu]

@@Fishdogfish Yes, I believe that person is talking about Johnathan Ferguson, keeper of firearms and artillery at the Royal Armouries Museum in the UK.

[@probower4726]

@@Fishdogfish The very same Jonathan Ferguson, the keeper of firearms and artillery at the Royal Armouries museum in the UK, which houses a collection of thousands of iconic weapons from throughout history.

[@LiveDonkeyDeadLion]

Please ensure you always use his correct title

[@XaleManix]

This is Christian Wellard, Curatory Assistant at the Royal Armories museum in the UK, home to thousands of iconic weapons from throughout history. Fantastic presentation, Chris! Cheers!!

[@mcintoshpc]

Always good to see Christian again!

[@ashokdeshmukh4511]

That's, Christian Wellard, Curatory Assistant at the Royal Armories museum in the UK, home to thousands of iconic weapons from throughout history.

[@jamesmatthews291]

Those pistols are beautiful. The fact that the bullet mould is similarly decorated speaks to how expensive these must have been.

[@mylesjordan9970]

Very interesting-the plate sealing the cylinder stops chain fires

[@MarvinCZ]

Properly sized bullets stop chain fires just fine. And properly sized caps and nipples on the other side - that's where you're more likely to get chain fire.

[@aaronleverton4221]

[insert joke about Americans' opinion of the pepperbox's greatest feature] The videos I've seen of them occurring seem like it would have been quite exciting for your average 18th century pistoleer who just wanted to get his eye in on some targets.

[@SandGentleman]

Beautiful pieces! Pure artistry.

[@derekp2674]

Thanks Christian and team, that was really interesting.

[@OnTheRiver66]

Thank you for this video! Beautiful pistol and components!

[@jamesallred460]

Very cool. Would like more attention paid to the close up shots. It was difficult to see how that tube primer works.

[@swimteampie]

That lighting though!

[@Enraged-Gecko]

Collier-type revolvers have always been a topic of great interest to me. There’s a certain steampunk aesthetic that just doesn’t exist in modern firearms.

[@haugheymatt4381]

This was marvellous Chris!

[@beansworthington]

Great videos, great exhibits, great presentation as always. Will be visiting again soon. Definitely worth the trip! Much love

[@gootcheeeee57]

Well done, Christian Wellard; curatorial assistant at the Royale Armouries in Leeds.

[@MichaelJohnson-tw7dq]

Very interesting pistols. I wish they used close up shots to film the tubes and the plate covering the front of the chambers (the view of it was blocked by the presenters hand). What caliber are they?

[@aaronleverton4221]

Royal Calibre.

[@causewaykayak]

Definitely interesting and well presented. Beautiful pieces.

[@sambowz9077]

Good stuff

[@eirikmellesdal]

Very cool video, best so far this month.

[@TheAmbassador117]

Great video! The artistry on display with that pistol set is astounding. I would be interested in seeing which weapons are considered the turning point/evolution of firearms in terms of technological improvement. For example: what weapon is considered to be the first example of using percussion caps? Or what weapon made percussion caps the go-forward technology? Thanks again for all you do! Cheers!

[@boydgrandy5769]

That tube igniter would be a bit of a pain to remove after firing, I expect. Positive ignition, but the hammer has to crush the tube to fire, and that would tend to jam the thing in the cylinder without a tool to remove it. Probably why this ignition system didn't catch on. Interesting how the cylinder is manually indexed, complete with a useful gas seal. Very clever piece of work. The chamber loads had to have been rammed to seat the ball, I would think, if only to keep from having an air gap between the ball and the powder, which is not a good thing in black powder firearms. They would be vastly superior to single shot muzzle loading percussion pistols, but really slow in a Wild West shootout, where gentlemen were rare and Col. Colt's revolvers were present.

[@ABrit-bt6ce]

Othias. Teleport that room to your shed. :)

[@bbqsauce8854]

Is that Mark Corrigan?

[@Cats-TM]

But, what does the top of the box look like? As it looks like there is something engraved into it.

[@ES1976-3]

Curatorial assistant is so lame compared to Johnathan’s Keeper of Firearms and etc. title… he needs something better- like Christian Wellard Auxiliary Conservator of The Majesty’s Firearms and Artillery.

[@jonathanferguson1211]

If it helps, he's just taken up a year's secondment as Senior Curator (Weapons) at the Imperial War Museum :)

[@ES1976-3]

@@jonathanferguson1211 Tell him congrats for us!

[@iamnuff1992]

Hang on a moment, you're not Jonathan Ferguson, Keeper of Firearms and Artillery at the Royal Armouries museum. (I don't know why, but saying the full title every time cracks me up)

[@BIG-DIPPER-56]

Caliber? Did I miss it?

[@pickeljarsforhillary102]

God created man. Sam Colt made man equal.

[@alexanderf8451]

God created the king. Le Page made them equal.

[@emperorlondomollari5511]

@@alexanderf8451 Pepe Le Pew did no such thing.

[@alexanderf8451]

Jonathan looks different when he shaves.

[@badpossum440]

more light mate more light.

[@jamesnelson1968]

Colt actually started his first revolver company in the mid eighteen thirties in Patterson New Jersey. That is why the earliest colt revolvers are referred to as the Patterson Colts. This company failed and went out of business in just a few years. Colt got back into the making of revolvers in eighteen forty seven when Captain Samuel Walker came to him with a design for an improved revolver and had him make one thousand guns. This restarted Colt's business and he seized the opportunity and built his business from there.

[@emperorlondomollari5511]

4 out of 10 booms.

[@liamperry7095]

The guy in charge of the guns is called Wellard ? Priceless 🤣

[@firsteerr]

the panic from the comments when Jonathon isn't presenting 😀

[@djashjones]

I though "Well Hard" was a dog in Eastenders 🤣

[@grahampalmer9337]

! You did remove the percussion tube before putting the gun back in to its case -didn't you? 🤨 I'll be frank. I waited apprehensively for a negligent discharge from the moment you pressed the tube home. 😕

[@salty4496]

:)

[@tristanduckwall762]

Started the video expecting Jonathon, what have you done with him????!!!

[@grahampalmer9337]

Mentions Ratchet Rifling, & how good it looks when a light is shone - up - the barrel .... But neither explains nor shines a light. Might be why you're only the assistant 😏

[@pertnerk]

who is this. where is jonathan. is he alright

[@TheSundayShooter]

This is Christian Wellard, the Curatorial Assistant at the Royal Armouries museum in the UK

[@emperorlondomollari5511]

@@TheSundayShooter Thank you for transcribing what was said in the video.

[@124marsh]

Jonathan is on vacation.

[@jonathanferguson1211]

@@124marsh He's not - this is a different series (it's been on hiatus) which features many of my colleagues and occasionally me as well :)

[@jonathanferguson1211]

I am fine, thank you :)

[@GrumpyGenXGramps]

WHO is this imposter and what has he done with Jonathan?!?!

[@GrumpyGenXGramps]

Why don’t these belong to ITALY? I would think they would be national historic artifacts. Yet they are owned and sit in the back of a British museum. I wonder why and how they came to be there?

[@MarvinCZ]

They are still a historical artifact, just in a different museum.

[@MarvinCZ]

And apparently, they were purchased in 1987 at an auction. I don't know how they got there.

[@jonathanferguson1211]

Sold onto the market - this is very common. There are many British antiques in American collections, for example. There is a scheme in place in the UK to monitor and potentially block the export of culturally or other significant objects but it's rare that something qualifies. I can't easily check when these left the country but I'm guessing there was no such protection in place. Had we not purchased them at Sotheby's in 1987 they could have ended up anywhere. Italian museums are welcome to request a loan, of course.

[@PURPLECATDUDE7734]

These days it seems one can’t have any sort of item in any museum in the UK without someone making the unfair assumption that it was acquired illicitly. Curiously enough nobody ever seems to make this assumption with museum collections in any other country, even those who also had large colonial empires.

[@GrumpyGenXGramps]

@@PURPLECATDUDE7734 nobody said that. It was an honest question. These aren’t just some rare antiques, they belonged to ROYALTY. So it’s not an accusation, it’s a QUESTION! Don’t be so sensitive, mate.