concept
Mortimer percussion pistol
Mortimer
also: пистолет Мортимера, дуэльный пистолет
H. W. Mortimer \& Co., a real London gunmaking firm (gunmakers to King George III), whose name became a European byword for a fine dueling pistol; percussion-cap dueling pistols by makers such as Mortimer were the standard weapon of the formal duel of honor. In "The Avenger" the clerk offers one just after Sigayev privately considers challenging his wife's lover to a duel.
Reading notes
- The Avenger §12 Mortimer percussion pistol
H. W. Mortimer \& Co. was a real London gunmaking firm (gunmakers to King George III) whose name became a byword in Russia, as elsewhere in Europe, for a fine dueling pistol; percussion-cap dueling pistols by makers such as Mortimer were the standard weapon of the formal duel of honor through the earlier nineteenth century, which is why the clerk offers one immediately after Sigayev raises the idea of a duel in his own mind.