GUEST: They were my grandfather's.

He traveled around the Caribbean in about uh the '50s, I think it was.

And he did a lot of personal favors for some families, and as a result of the favors, someone gave him this as a gift.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: And that's really all we know.

We don't know very much about it.

APPRAISER: What do you think pistols like this would've been used for?

GUEST: Uh, we think they're dueling pistols.

APPRAISER: Where do you think they're from?

GUEST: Uh, we think they were made in England, APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: but we're not sure of that, either, so... APPRAISER: Okay.

Well, this is actually a... a typical English casing GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: for a pair of dueling pistols GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: from around the early 19th century.

The case has a label in it that says "William Dooley, from Liverpool," and the case set here has what appears to be their original accessories.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: And would've originally held a pair of, probably... of Flint dueling pistols.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Unfortunately, the pistols themselves are actually German.

GUEST: Yeah?

APPRAISER: The pistols have a mark right here, in gold...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: That says "Kraus in Hertzberg," and they date to about the mid-19th century.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: So they're a little bit later.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: So at some point or other, the box and the pistols were married together.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: That said, too, is that they're actually not dueling pistols.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: They're typical target pistols.

GUEST: Oh, okay.

APPRAISER: And one thing that you can tell about a target pistol is, is that they have rifling right in here.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And that would help the ball move straighter.

Now, in your traditional English pistols, GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: dueling pistols, they were smoothbore.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And one of the reasons was, is that when they were in a duel, they didn't want, necessarily, the bullet to go straight.

GUEST: (chuckling): Okay.

APPRAISER: They wanted the bullet to sort of wobble in the air, because it was considered ungentlemanly...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...to take that much accuracy in this contest between two gentlemen over a matter of honor.

So you would almost never see rifling in that type of pistol.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: The other thing about it, which is very typical of this type of target pistol, is right here you'll see, behind the sight...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...there's a little nut there for adjusting the actually level of the sight...

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: ...depending on the range that you were looking for.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: So, again, those are very typical target features.

The pistols themselves are probably, I would imagine, worth, at auction, about $5,000 to $7,000.

GUEST: Oh, okay.

APPRAISER: With the case, you may be able to add another $1,000.

GUEST: Oh, okay.

Well, thank you.

APPRAISER: You're welcome.