Shooting Gazette – September 2019

WWW.SHOOTINGGAZETTE.CO.UK SEPTEMBER 2019 73

ANDREW ORR/HOLTS AUCTIONEERS

ThomasBoss12-bore

percussiongunno.

1525 of1857,converted

toa centre-firebreech-

loaderbyEdwardPaton

of Perth in the 1870s.

fondnessfor,ora confidence

in hisgun.Sucha conversion

is theThomasBosspercussion

gunillustrated,builtin 1857and

convertedto a centre-firebreech-

loaderin the1870s by Edward

Patonof Perth.

Gunno. 1525 beganlifeas the

No.1gunof a pairof percussion

gunsorderedon7 February,

1857,byFrederickBaconFrank

of CampshallPark,Doncaster and

EarlhamHall,Norwich.

Frankwasbornin 1827,so

hewouldhavebeen 30 whenhe

orderedthispairof Bosses.He

intendedthegunsto bedelivered

to Croftin Loan,Pitlochryin

Perthshireforgrouseshooting.This

explains why he chose Edward

Patonof Perthto undertakethe

conversionwork,as thegunsmost

probablyremainedin Perthshire.

Theadvantagesof breech-loading

overmuzzle-loadingwereso great

thatmanypercussiongunswere

convertedto thenewsystem.It

was such a big job that one or two

specialistsundertookthework,one

suchbeingEdwardPatonof Perth.

Patonwasin businessat 44George

Street,Perthandon 25 May,1865,

hetookoutprovisionalpatentno.

1433 forconvertingmuzzle-loaders

tobreech-loaders.

Hecharged£15forthis

conversionwork,andconsidering

a newBosscostabout£65in this

period,it wasa notinconsiderable

amountof money.Hispatentnever

progressedbeyondtheprovisional

stage,buthedidestablisha good

reputationforhisconversions.The

actionflatsonthisBoss are stamped

‘EdwardPaton’.

FrederickBaconFrankmust

havelikedhispairof Bossesas he

approached Edward Paton in

“The advantages of

breech-loading over

muzzle-loading were

so great that many

percussion guns

were converted to

the new system.”