Rare 200-year-old rifle raises £1,800 at auction

The 200-year-old rifle was made by Hull-based gunsmith George Wallis

A “rare” firearm made by a Yorkshire gunsmith in the 18th Century has been sold for more than four times its highest estimate.

The muzzle-loading rifle, made by George Wallis of Hull, was among the contents of a closed private museum in East Yorkshire.

Auctioneers had valued it for sale between £200 and £400.

However, the 200-year-old weapon sold for £1,800 at David Duggleby’s Auction House in Scarborough.

The gun is fired by compressed air rather than gunpowder.

According to auctioneer Will Duggleby, it meant it was capable of multiple shots and immune to weather conditions, which had previously challenged European gunsmiths.

“It is a striking-looking gun,” he said.

“A walnut stock with a 34 inch (86cm) long rifled barrel, but then with the unexpected addition of the round brass air reservoir.

“To use it the reservoir is removed and filled with compressed air using a hand pump before being re-attached ready for firing,” he said.

The rifle is fired by compressed air instead of gunpowder

Mr Duggleby added: “It is a very, very rare gun, not least because just a few years after it was made a Scottish clergymen invented percussion ignition and that made other systems obsolete overnight.”

He said the Wilberforce House Museum in Hull has one of the air-powered rifles, which had been part of Wallis’s own collection, and Burton Constable Hall, in East Yorkshire, has another.

“This is the first we’ve ever seen in one of our militaria auctions,” said Mr Duggleby.

“It has been entered by the family of a private collector who some years ago operated a private museum in East Yorkshire.”

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