John Dickson established his gunmaking business in 1820 in Edinburgh, Scotland and by 1840 he was trading as a gunmaker under his own name. This one of a kind shotgun features a single bead sight on the smooth concave solid rib marked "JOHN DICKSON & SON. 63 PRINCES STREET, EDINBURGH" near the breech. The hammers, locks, frizzens, trigger guard, forearm escutcheon and rear ramrod pipe are engraved with a fine English scroll design. Each lock is marked "JOHN DICKSON & SON". There are two wide gold inlaid bands on the breech plug and one on the upper tang. The flash hole plugs and inside of the flash pans are gold plated. The Damascus barrels are brown, the trigger guard and buttplate are a bright high polished blue, and the remaining parts are casehardened. Double triggers, walnut ramrod with brass tip and mounted on a beautifully figured 3x fancy half walnut straight grip stock with checkered wrist area, engraved 4 inch extended buttplate tang and gold initial oval. Length of pull is 14 7/16 inches. The shotgun comes with a green felt lined walnut case with brass corner protectors on the lid and brass corner reinforcements. In the case is a leather shot pouch with casehardened neck, a leather covered G & J.W Hawksley marked powder flask, two wooden handled screwdrivers which are fitted to the screws on the shotgun, a patch cutter, a two-piece wooden cleaning rod in a leather pouch (which the consignor states has never been assembled), a hand carved ivory dog whistle, two leather pouches containing 6 flints each, one also contains 6 leather patches and a combination tool and a casehardened container with a flip-up lid marked "1 oz" on the bottom. This is the type of shotgun renowned gun collector Charles Gordon would be interested in. From 1868 to 1906, Charles Gordon purchased 229 firearms from John Dickson & Son, at times buying one third of Dickson's yearly output. He spent over £10,000 on his gun collection which included other firearms by renowned British gunmakers of the period. To put Gordon's purchasing power in perspective, £10,000 has the relative value of £910,700.00, or over $1.5 million, in today's currency! Gordon's collecting, which went beyond firearms, nearly bankrupted his estate. In 1908 Gordon's sisters took over the estate and sold their brothers prized collections which included percussion rifles selling around 75 pence, percussion shotguns for 1 pound, and flintlock shotguns and pistols selling between 3 to 6 pounds. How times have changed! Bore diameter: R- .722 L- .722, bore constriction: R- .000 L- .000, min. bbl thickness: R- .040 L- .040, length of pull: 14 5/8 inches, drop at comb: 1 5/16 inches, drop at heel: 2 1/16 inches, weight: 7lbs 5oz.

Excellent plus with 99% brown and casehardened finish remaining. All of the Damascus pattern remains. The trigger guard retains 90% original blue finish with a couple of small areas of flaking with oxidation on the exposed metal. The buttplate retains 99% plus original bright blue finish with a few minor handling marks. The stock is excellent with a couple minor dents at the escutcheon, overall light handling/storage marks and sharp checkering. The markings and engraving are crisp and clear. All of the gold inlay remains. The action is excellent. The case is good with a 14 inch minor crack in the slightly warped lid and some light wear on the lining. The inside of the lid has had a label removed and lighter area where the adhesive was cleaned off. The accessories are all extremely fine or better. This is an extraordinary John Dickson Flintlock double barrel shotgun that would be nearly impossible to improve upon!