Original Item: One of a Kind. Henry Nock (1741–1804) was a legendary London Gunsmith, Inventor, and Engineer, who began his career as a locksmith, patenting a design in 1775, before forming several companies to market his products. He truly rose to prominence in 1779 with being contracted to produce James Wilson's "Volley Gun" design, which are highly sought after. Nock became a Freeman of the Gunmakers Company in 1784, after which he was one of the most sought after gunmakers during the French Revolution and Napoleonic periods. His guns were well made, and his designs very innovative, and he carved out a solid place in British gunmaking history before his death in 1804.

This is a tremendous and probably experimental screwless detached lock mechanism for a flintlock pistol or carbine, made by the famous London Gun Maker HENRY NOCK, and is fitted with his patented internal hammer mechanism and a very interesting “flash guard” over the frizzen. The lock is signed H‧NOCK. The flash pan shield side cover is engraved with the CROWN over G.R. royal cypher, and there is also a CROWN / BROAD ARROW "Lock Viewer's Mark over the maker name.

This lock plate is a variation of what is known as a "Screwless" lock, in that only the bottom ends of bolts & screws are visible, and the entire lock is secured by just ONE lock bolt entering from the left hand side. This keeps all of the components "internal", including the hammer, frizzen spring, etc, making for a very elegant and clean look.

The flash pan shield side cover is partially detached from the left end but still sits in place. The entire lock shows oxidation & heavy age, but the lock appears to be in fully functional condition, and the hammer holds well at both half & full cock. 

This is an exceptionally scarce lock made by one of the most legendary of all British Gun Makers, Henry Nock. We have only seen a couple of other examples, one affixed to a pistol and one to a carbine, so don’t miss out on this rare opportunity to find one detached like this. A great and likely experimental bit of British firearm history relating to one of the biggest names in the industry. Comes ready for further research and display.

Henry Nock

Henry Nock (1741–1804) was a British inventor and engineer of the Napoleonic period, best known as a gunmaker. Nock produced many innovative weapons including the screwless lock and the seven-barrelled volley gun, although he did not invent the latter despite it commonly being known as the Nock gun. He was a major supplier to the military during the Napoleonic wars. His high quality duelling pistols and double-barrelled shotguns were much sought after and it is largely through Nock that the latter became the weapon of choice for hunters.

As well as supplying the military and civilian markets, Nock made expensive pieces for the aristocracy and royalty and was an appointed gunmaker to the king. Nock's business eventually became Wilkinson Sword, a company which today makes razor blades and other shaving equipment and, until 2005, made officer's swords for the British Army.

Nock produced many innovative weapons. In 1793, he made a double-barrelled pistol with a removable stock for the Royal Horse Artillery. However, this weapon was impractical with the stock removed and was usually used as a carbine. In 1797, Nock put into production a 9-inch pistol (pattern 1796) for heavy dragoons with a calibre matching their carbines. Some of these pistols had a novel lock designed by Nock, originally intended for an abandoned musket design requested by the Duke of Richmond in 1786 while serving as Master-General of the Ordnance. The new lock could be dismantled by removable pins rather than the previous more cumbersome and time-consuming screws, and were intended to have interchangeable components. The pattern 1796 had no butt-plate and the ramrod was stored in the holster rather than attached to the barrel. This feature made it unpopular with users and many guns were modified to take a conventional swivel ramrod.

The name of Nock is perhaps best known today for the multi-barrelled Nock gun due to it being featured in several films. These include uses of this volley gun by the characters Patrick Harper in Sharpe and Jim Bowie in The Alamo. Nock was the manufacturer, but not the inventor, of this weapon. Despite its portrayal in film, this weapon was not very practical as a hand weapon due its very severe recoil, often causing injuries, and the time needed to reload the seven barrels. It was necessary to abandon the rifling of the early prototypes and reduce the charge to keep this problem manageable. Intended as a naval weapon fired from the rigging to repel boarders on the deck, it was retired by the Royal Navy in 1804. Nock also produced some experimental rotating multi-barrelled guns to fire one barrel at a time.

In his own day, Nock was most well known for his double-barrelled shotguns. He was not the first to make weapons in such a format, but their high quality and Nock's many innovations led to shotguns becoming highly popular as a hunting gun, especially after Nock became gun maker to the king. Nock was also well known for his duelling pistols.

Nock made weapons covering the whole field from pistols to muskets. The great variety is perhaps illustrated by his coach blunderbuss which, like naval pistols, had a more corrosion resistant brass barrel. Such weapons were intended to be used at short range and did not take a large enough charge to require iron barrels. Nock continued to innovate until his death – late in life he was making breech loading muskets.