Miles Officer's Holster Pistol
date: label: date made
content: ca 1800
name: label: maker
content: Miles, John
notes: label: Description
content: Physical Description:
label: Description
content: This .60 caliber smoothbore flintlock Holster pistol was made under militia contract by John Miles in Philadelphia. It is pin fastened with a half octagonal barrel and a wooden ramrod with a swelled tip. It has brass mountings and an acorn filial on the trigger guard. It also has a gooseneck hammer and flat sided grips,
label: Description
content: The octagonal part to the barrel is stamped “PHILADA” and is struck “PROVED” in gold.
label: Description
content: History:
label: Description
content: Because there is no date on this pistol, it could have been made by John Miles Sr. or his son John Miles Jr. Miles Sr. moved to Philadelphia from London, England in 1790. He opened a “Gun and Pistol Manufactory”. An advertisement in the Philadelphia archives from 1798 reads, “Guns and Pistol Manufactory; No. 500 North Street; Where merchants, Captains of vessels and others may be supplied with all sorts of small arms, on the lowest terms and shortest notice.” Miles Sr. died in 1808. His son Miles Jr. went on to fulfill other pistol contracts at Bordentown, New Jersey after his father’s death.
label: Description
content: The flat sided grip on this pistol is more representative of a civilian than a military grip. It is one of the types of firearms, Miles’s company offered in the 1798 advertisement.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Flayderman, Norm. Flayderman’s Guide to Antique American Firearms…and their Values, Gun Digest Books, Iola, 2007. 9th edition
label: Description
content: Gardner, Robert E. Col. Small Arms Makers: A Directory of Fabricators of Firearms, Edged Weapons, Crossbows and Polearms, Crown Publishers Inc, New York: 1963, p. 132.
label: Description
content: Smith, Samuel E. and Edwin W. Bitter. Historic Pistols: The American Martial Flintlock 1760-1845, Scalamandre Publications, New York: 1986, p. 106.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Military and Society: Armed Forces History, Military
label: See more items in
content: The Bitter Collection of Firearms
label: See more items in
content: Military
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: The Adriana and Edwin W. Bitter Family Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1986.0024.15
label: accession number
content: 1986.0024
label: catalog number
content: 1986.0024.15
label: collector/donor number
content: P86L
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pistol
label: Object Name
content: pistol, flintlock
label: Other Terms
content: pistol; Firearms; Army; Flintlock; .60 In; Smooth Bore; Muzzle Load; Sa
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (part material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (part material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 14 1/8 in; 35.8775 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 7/8 in x 14 1/2 in x 5 5/8 in; 4.7625 cm x 36.83 cm x 14.2875 cm