Firearms — 19th century — 1830s
About this product
About this collection
This collection covers 157 firearms from the 1830s, delivered across 431 images in 29 ZIP assets. The 1830s was the decade in which percussion cap ignition achieved critical mass — the British Army formally adopted percussion muskets in 1838, and by the end of the decade the flintlock was effectively obsolete in military service. The collection spans both flintlock holdovers and the new percussion designs that replaced them.
Why it matters
The formal adoption of the percussion cap by major European armies in the 1830s was a watershed moment — improving reliability dramatically and enabling more compact and repeating designs. The Royal Armouries' holdings capture both the final flowering of flintlock craftsmanship and the first generation of percussion arms.
Use cases & time to value
- Game & film production design: Accurate period reference for 1830s-era weapons in historical games, film, and television
- AI training data: Large labelled firearms dataset for object-recognition, period-classification, and type-identification models
- Military history research: Primary visual source for comparative study of 1830s firearms technology and design evolution
- Publishing & editorial: Ready-to-license imagery for histories, encyclopaedias, and military reference works
- Museum education: Accessible digital collection for academic and public programming on 1830s arms development
Data schema
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| object_number | string | Royal Armouries catalogue number (XII. prefix + sequence) |
| object_name | string | Standardised object type name as catalogued |
| class | string | XII (Firearms) |
| period | string | 1830s |
| image_filename | string | Original filename as catalogued by the museum |
| image_format | string | tif (archival high-res), jpg (catalogue), or bmp (legacy) |
| width_px | integer | Image width in pixels |
| height_px | integer | Image height in pixels |
| file_size_bytes | integer | Uncompressed file size in bytes |
Collection stats
29 assets · 157 objects · 431 images · 1830s
Assets (0)
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