Thankyou very much for the further information. It's particularly interesting to learn of Charles Lancaster's profile as a leading barrel-maker, and to see his initials so clearly stamped on his work.
The list of London gunmakers is also stimulating of fresh ideas. I hadn't really expected to find Cultler on it, as someone with serial addresses in Birmingham's gun quarter (who moreover goes missing from the record for a decade), seems unlikely to have had either the cash or the cachet to establish themself in the capital. However, I'm thinking that if "ISH" is the equivalent of "CL", then it may be fruitful to search the London Directories of the early 19th century for a barrel-maker with a first name beginning with "I" and a surname beginning with "H" (or possibly "S", if the surname is itself double-barrelled! - however unusual it may have been for a tradesman to style himself in this way).
In that regard, if anyone reading this has a copy of Howard L. Blackmore's
Gunmakers of London: 1350-1850 to hand, would you be kind enough to look for "I*H" entries from the first decades of the 19th century?
Edit: I find nothing in the
Post Office Annual Directory, 1808Nothing in the
Post Office London Directory, 1841. [Part 1: Street, Commercial, & Trades Directories), either.
