Overcoat pistols, for the pockets of greatcoats, and the smaller pocket pistols were a response to the demand for self-protection against highwaymen and muggers.

These pistols are of the late flint-lock type, when flint-lock technology was well developed, but about to be replaced by the new percussion type. They were made between 1810 and 1820, and Robert Stephens (active from about 1793 to 1837) was the probable maker.