Tinder-pistol (length 8 ins) combined with ink-well, pounce-box, and candle-socket (all removable), with a small drawer below for sulphur-matches; in front, a pistol-barrel very closely resembling that of (and apparently converted from) an ordinary pistol; the whole, in very heavy solid black cast-iron; stands on three small feet and the handle; below the striker is a pan for priming-powder, with a touch-hole communicating with the interior of the barrel, in which probably some tinder was placed, perhaps on the end of a rod which was thrust down the barrel; altogether a very unusual and perhaps unique piece; probably late 18th or early 19th century; from Murthly Castle, Perthshire. Scotland.