Item:
ON12795

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Original British East India Company Model A Converted Percussion Musket with 1812 Dated EIC Lock and EIC Proofed Barrel

Regular price $1,995.00

Item Description

Original Item: Only One Available. The Nepalese cache purchase of 2003 is truly the gift that keeps on giving, even after almost 20 years! This is a very interesting Musket that started life as a standard 39" barreled East India Company Flintlock Brown Bess, most likely of the 1771 "Windus Pattern". This was one of many cases where the EIC anticipated the changes that the British Army would take, as in 1796 they switched from the Short Land Pattern Musket to the "India Pattern", with the same 39 inch barrel.

This example has a flat lock plate that bears a clear EIC "Rampant Lion" marking next to the hammer along with aa CROWN / 2 proof, and is clearly dated 1812 on the lock plate tail. There is some simple line engraving around the end of the lock, which is definitely of British manufacture, now converted to percussion. The filled holes in the lock plate where the frizzen spring and frizzen can still easily be seen.

The barrel also bears clear British markings, including the CROWN / GP gunmaker's proof and CROWN / V "viewed" markings from the London gun company proof house. In between these is the EIC "Heart" proof, only seen on British made Barrels accepted by the company. There is another "Heart" proof on the right side of the butt stock, and the side plate has the correct screw in the center, seen almost exclusively on EIC muskets.

What we are offering here is an original EIC "Windus Pattern" Flintlock Brown Bess that was found in Kathmandu, Nepal, which had been converted to percussion sometime in the 1830s and issued into East India Company service. This most probably arrived in Nepal with a Sepoy Mutineer after the Great Rebellion on 1857/58 that tore India apart and was only put down with great help provided by Britain's Nepalese Allies. Nepalese markings can still be seen on the bottom of the trigger guard.

Overall condition of the musket is very nice, especially considering the amount of service it must have seen. It has been carefully restored by our expert antique gunsmiths to look much as it did when it was in service in the early to mid 19th century. The metalwork has a lovely matured peppery patina, and the brass fittings look great. We tested the lock, and it is fully functional, holding at half cock and firing at full. It is a bit hard to move the hammer back, and both tumbler positions are relatively far back. The stock has a lovely color, showing some past repairs along the wood line on both sides next to the barrel. There are also some faint stampings in the wood, definitely a great opportunity for future research.

A fantastic EIC Model A percussion converted musket, which probably saw long service in the subcontinent during the early 19th century. We do not see these very often at all! Ready to research and display!

Specifications-

Year of Manufacture: 1812 - Converted Later
Caliber: .75"
Cartridge Type: Ball and Powder
Barrel Length: 39 Inches
Overall Length: 54 3/4 Inches
Action type: Side Action Percussion Lock
Feed System: Muzzle Loading

More on the EIC Percussion Muskets:

Official records tell us that the British East India Company procured or made no Flintlock Muskets after the late 1820s and it appears they were very swift to take advantage of the newest in firearms technology- the percussion ignition system. In 1840 the HEIC began producing the world's very first massed produced percussion muskets one of which later became known as the EIC Model "F".

A brief history of how this model came to being- The shortened 39" barrel Brown Bess musket was first developed and adopted by the EIC in 1771. This was a full 25 years before the Board of Ordnance in London followed suit with a 39" Brown Bess Musket dubbed the "India Pattern" in 1796. This is a testament that private enterprise has seemingly always got things done long before government bureaucrats. In 1839 the British Government officially adopted a converted to percussion Brown Bess musket (P-1796/39) but in the Great Fire of the Tower of London of 1841 over 400,000 of these converted Muskets were destroyed leaving the British Government very short handed. The result, once again, was to copy the current EIC Percussion Musket, the Model "F" and designate it the "Lovell's Pattern of 1842". By that time, the EIC had already developed and refined the .75 bore Percussion musket through six models- A to F.

Models A and B were EIC flintlock muskets converted to percussion. However, the Model F was purpose built percussion issue. This Pattern dispensed with the screw on breech (needed because of the unreliability of the brazed on nipple lumps) as improved technology now permitted the welding of the nipple lump directly to the side of the breech. The nipple lump changes shape to fit what was then called the "new style lock". The lock was of the new percussion type with the mainspring no longer screwed in at its small end but secured under a lip inside the lock plate. The trigger is hung in a box, part of the trigger plate, instead of on a pin in the wood, and the side plate disappeared in favor of the later side nail cups with new Pattern F bayonet catch. These were built or "set up" between 1845 and 1851.

The differences between the various EIC Models are generally minor; Model A and B were Brown Bess flintlock conversions, Model C and D were purpose built percussion muskets but had the "Old Series" side locks with differing trigger guard styles, while the Model E and F both had the "new series" side locks and had either the Hanoverian Catch on the Model E or the EIC bayonet catch on the Model F.

Please See David Harding's stellar work "Smallarms of the East India Company 1600-1856" published in four volumes by Foresight Books in 1997. Specifically, please see Volume 2, pages 97-124 for a mass of information concerning the vary EIC Model muskets.

NOTE: International orders of antique firearms MUST be shipped using UPS WW Services (courier). USPS Priority Mail international will not accept these. International customers should always consult their country's antique gun laws prior to ordering.

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