Item Description
Original Item: ONE ONLY! Truly rare, this is the only ONE we've ever seen. Introduced early in 1945 and discontinued in January 1947 this is the rarest of all the Vickers Tripods. Intended for Airborne use these were principally made of light weight Magnesium. Tripod marked on the crosshead "
This is our ONLY example, dated "L.P.45" and Serial numbered "S25". British M.O.D. only documents that 2,050 were manufactured, all by PORTADYNE RADIO LTD. Fitted with its original special hollow front mounting bolt, our one example has been completely restored, repainted and marked "2 PARA". This is the time, for the truly advanced collector to have a one of a kind original WWII Vickers Tripod!
Due to some customer questions, We have re-examined this Mark 5 Tripod serial #LP45 and note as follows: The Crosshead is lightweight and constructed of some non magnetic material (magnesium) as stated in Dolph Goldsmith's (The Grand Old Lady of No Man's Land). The body of the Tripod also is of this same lightweight material and is also Serial numbered LP45 with a makres mark S.254.
The three tripod legs DO NOT have the addition of a spike on the feet, as shown in illustration #522 on page 465 of Goldsmith's excellent book HOWEVER these are non standard legs in that the feet are also non magnetic lightweight material, the tubular portion are steel possibly thinner walled and the upper portion which interfaces with the body of the tripod although also of ferrous material has been lightened by the machining away of a considerable amount of metal in the form of a "donut" from the bracket head which is not apparent until the leg is disassembled from the tripod.The Azimuth dial of brass and the elevating gear with brass wheel appear to be standard Mk 4 Tripod specification parts which one could assume are replacements or were still being utilized in the early Mk.5 Tripod construction of low serial number. Plainly the absence of the spikes on the lightweight non magnetic feet indicate that design modifications were ongoing with improvements being added as production progressed. This tripod came to us in a Government Surplus sale in the mid 1990s mixed in with several hundred standard tripods
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