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  • The Field

    EARLY TOY GUNS

    Dec 12, 2019 2 minutes
    BY JONATHAN FERGUSON

    WE are used to thinking of ‘firing’ toy guns (notably cap guns) as a modern phenomenon, perhaps arising from popular culture around the theme of the American ‘Old West’ and only enabled by the invention of percussion ignition at the beginning of the 19th century. In reality, toy firearms are very old indeed, dating back to the Elizabethan

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