Arms Cavalcade Edition 2018

SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSN 1325-779X

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Contents A Very Fortunate Find . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04 A Young Australian Called To War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Balinese Keris Symbolism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Carbines of the U. S. Civil War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 John Joseph Wallace

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Silver - Mounted Flintlock Pistols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Brigadier - General Davie’s Shashka Kukri

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Milittary and Naval Folding Bladed Knives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Wogdon Duelling Pistols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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EDITOR’S NOTE The 2018 edition has articles on people and antique collectables. Brad Manera has written about a young soldier who was killed at Lone Pine in the Gallipoli Campaign, John Newton on John Joseph Wallace a gifted colonial marksman, soldier and police officer, Tony Wood on 18th Century pistols for the Ottomans, Geoff Pogson on a rare English percussion pistol, Paul Duffy on Keris in Bali, Roger Dundas on a Shaska presented to an English officer, Peter Dahdah on US Civil War Carbines, George Fennell on Kukris from Nepal and Ron Cook on Military and Naval knives.

The emphasis is on antique collectables and how society used them.

My sincere thanks, as always to Ivan Fitz-Gerald and Scribbly Bark Design.

Visit our website at: www.antiquearmssociety.org.au

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OFFICE BEARERS

REGISTERED OFFICE

COMMITTEE

PHOTOGRAPHY

Chairman Harvey Facer Secretary Terry Hartmann Treasurer Ron Cook

C/- Hartmann & Associates 135 Macquarie St Sydney NSW 2000

Paul Duffy Mitch Frost Bill Newbold Dominic Hassett Ken Buxton Andrew Gryta Geoff Pogson Rick Jones

Ivan Fitz-Gerald

EDITORS Paul Duffy Bill Taylor

DESIGN Scribbly Bark Design © No part of this magazine may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the editor or authors.

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A Very Fortunate Find I noticed an advertisement offering a “Robert Adams Percussion Revolver” for sale, with a barrel address of 76 King William Street, London.

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ne lazy day in January this year whilst browsing one of the usual guns for sale sites on the internet, I noticed an advertisement offering a “Robert Adams Percussion Revolver” for sale, with a barrel address of 76 King William Street, London. There was an accompanying small photo of the pistol, which was quite unusual, and therefore quite intriguing. I enlarged the picture, but was not much the wiser, so I contacted the seller and asked for further photos and information.

A reply was soon on the way with four much better pictures which allowed me to try to fathom what it actually was. An Adams for sure, but which one? The

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grip was very like the Beaumont Adams shape and style, while the square lump beneath the barrel was reminiscent of the John Adams model 1866 cap & ball pistol but it was neither and I had to go back to my much thumbed copy of the “Adams Revolver” to see what information, if any, I could turn up.

I began with the model of 1866 and as I read, it came to mind that somewhere I had noted that John and Robert Adams had worked together on a new pistol, in the mid 1850’s. Perhaps this was the one. I went back to the previous chapter and there it was a photo of the identical pistol to the one for sale, for which I had, by now, sent a deposit. It was, after all, an Adams, and the price was very reasonable. Even

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“ e bore shows several short sections of riing,â€?

King The barrel engraved with 76 Ki K ng William Street, London

though the action was faulty, I hoped I might be able to get it going again. The photo I found was of a pistol with a small commercial production, soon to be over shadowed by the 1866 percussion model and the 1867 cartridge model. The John Adams Percussion Revolver of 1857 was overtaken by progress even as it left the drawing board.

When first aware of this unusual pistol I had contacted a fellow member whose knowledge of British pistols is second to none, sending him the enlarged photos that I had received, and asking for any ideas he might have. I received confirmation in his email that, my photos were that of the Model 1857, just as I had found with the book few minutes earlier.

This email also advised that a contact in England was the authority on this rare model, and an owner of one himself, and that my email and photos had been sent on to him for further validation.

The reply was very encouraging in that the English connection confirmed that it was indeed a rare bird, with probably no more than a hundred ever made, and far fewer known to still exist, and with mine now added to the known examples. What a great surprise this was for an avid and deserving old Adams collector.

This old pistol has seen better days but they were a long time ago, the list of detracting features is as follows. The bore shows several short sections of

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A Very Fortunate Find

“ e outward appearance is un-inspiring, the blue long ago turned to brown”

rifling, though not a single land runs the whole length of the barrel. There is a repair by welding at a point about two inches from the muzzle, which, when added to the two very oval shaped chambers in the cylinder, also repaired by heat and hammer welding, suggest an explosive burst at some point in its life.

The action fault is improving to the point where it functions perfectly in single action but falters in double action, a problem which I am niggling away at, when not writing.

The outward appearance is un-inspiring, the blue long ago having turned to brown which was scrubbed off and a rough aging process applied to this hard tried old gun. There are some marks, inflicted with a hammer and centre punch, to look like a Broad Arrow

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on one side and the Roman numeral IV. What it means, I know not, but I wonder why they did it?

The pistol is of .450 Calibre and five shot capacity and feels well in the hand. Though quite a complicated mechanism, it also “feels good” as it functions. It is John Adams first foray into the twopiece frame and barrel construction, much used in his later models. The barrel part has an extension which becomes the top strap over the cylinder, and also extends downwards to provide the rear bearing for the cylinder arbour pin, the front bearing being in the barrel lump, to which is also attached the ram lever, which in turn secures the arbour pin in its place, without need for the usual springs or screws.

This last feature also appears to have been used

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“ e grip was very like the Beaumont Adams shape and style”

on the Model 1866 Adams C&B pistol, judging by the photographs of them.

The two parts of the frame and barrel are connected by two small screws through the barrel lump, and a third screw running lengthwise through the frame, just where the breast of the hammer nearly touches the frame. It is an old clunker, but it is a rare old clunker and one that I will have to make do with til a better one turns up, and until then I am very happy to be its minder.

The barrel address is one that Robert Adams worked from after he and John had split with the London Armoury Comany, when the Company seems to have favoured James Kerr’s revolver over the Beaumont Adams models. Robert carried on in

business for a few years at No 76, while John started out on his own, with his later models of 1867A and 1872, filling his military contracts with the War Department, until the Enfield Revolvers of 1880, became the military issue via the War Department.

I had assumed that Robert was the brains of the outfit, with his model of 1851 surprising the world, but after advances made by Tranter with his adaptation of the Adams frames, then Colonel Beaumont adding his single action contribution and finally, cousin John making even further improvements using the two-piece frame innovation without infringing on Robert’s patent or losing the assets of the solid frame, I have reconsidered.

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A Very Fortunate Find

Now I think it fair to say that though Robert’s 1851 design was a great leap forward, cousin John was able to reduce production time and machining costs with the two piece construction and to make five revolvers, which for their time, were top class pistols.

The Model 1866 was the last of the percussion revolvers taken on by the War Department, with two more, the Beaumont Adams Cartridge conversion in .442 Calibre, often called the 1867A. and the 1872 Model .in 450 CF calibre. John Adams also did the conversion of the 7000 Beaumont Adams 54 bore C&B revolvers. The 1867B model, although efficient, was considered too complex for military use.

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“John Adams revolvers were issued to various State Police Forces in Australia and New Zealand,”

“these arms,, designed g byy John Adams,, have stood the test of time,”

Many of the types 1867A 18 867A and 1872 John Joh hn Adams Adam ms revolvers were issued iss ssue ued d to t various var arious us State P Police olice Forc ol Forces rces es in Australia and New Zealand, to the Mounties in Canada and some officers in the Zulu war carried them except for Michael Caine, as they couldn’t find any for the movie. Many others were issued to second tier military forces in WW1, including in Australia and New Zealand. The 1867B model, fore gone by the military, did enjoy some popular support in the commercial market.

Considering their world-wide distribution and long service life, these arms, designed by John Adams, have stood the test of time, and the precursor to all this success was this rarest model of 1857. They do him credit and deserve the high esteem of collectors.

They have mine for one, anyway.

References 1. Adams Revolvers - W.H.J. Chamberlain and A.W.F.Taylerson 2. and Sound Advice of a Few Good Men Who Know.

3. I am also indebted to John Newton for his valuable advice concerning “English as she is spoke and writ”

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A YOUNG AUSTRALIAN CALLED TO WAR It was 1915 and the casualty reports from the Anzac Landing were hitting the headlines.

Jack Harris followed the war news along with the rest of his family.

Words By Brad Manera, Senior Historian / Curator Anzac Memorial

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rom his pulpit in 1914 Reverend Digges La Touche may have invoked Macaulay’s quote “how can man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his gods.” With sermons like this at church and classroom poems like Newbolt’s Vitai Lampada

e river of death as brimmed his banks And England’s far, and Honour a name, But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks; ‘Play up! Play up! And play the game!’

15- year-old schoolboy John Harris could not have escaped the patriotism of the British Empire shared in far-off Australia. Service may have been compulsory under the Universal Military Training Scheme, introduced in 1912 but few objected. Harris, known as ‘Jack’, was so keen that he was commissioned cadet officer in the 28th (militia) Battalion.

It was 1915 and the casualty reports from the Anzac Landing were hitting the headlines. Jack Harris followed the war news along with the rest of his family.

We will never know what convinced him to enlist.

Was he caught up in patriotic fervor? Was he inspired by his grandfather’s medals from the Opium War (1856 – 60) and the Maori wars (1860 – 66) that were a proud heirloom in the family home?

Or could the words of the Rev La Touche have had such a profound effect on the whole family?

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Jack Harris in Cadet O Officer Uniform

China & New Zealand Medals awarded to A.B. Alfred Harris

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Parents Consent Form to Join A.I.E.Forces

Whatever the reason Jack convinced his father Alfred to grant permission and on 2 June 1915 cadet officer Harris became Private John Harris, 6th Reinforcements, 2nd Battalion AIF. The commander of that reinforcement batch was Lt Digges La Touche!

The 2nd Battalion AIF had been raised in northern NSW by the member for Armidale George Braund. The battalion was among the second wave

to land at Anzac. Braund was killed on 4 May and was replaced by Maj Robert Scobie, a farmer from Maitland. Like the rest of the Australian & New Zealand Army Corps the Battalion had suffered hundreds of casualties fighting through the gullies and ridges of Gallipoli in April and May. In the brutally hot summer months of June and July more men were lost through disease and debility brought on by little water and poor sanitation.

View of Anzac Cove late summer 1915

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A Young Australian Called to War

Young Australians at Anzac with a Hand Grenade

Jack Harris’ Death Plaque and envelop sent to his Parents

In August the British made a desperate attempt to break the trench deadlock that had created stalemate at Anzac. The plan was for an offensive to burst through the Ottoman lines north of Anzac to coincide with a major British landing further north at Suvla Bay. The breakout would be preceded by a feint attack at the southern end of the line on the 400 Plateau, a position the Anzacs called Lone Pine.

The feint was to be executed by the men of the NSW raised 1st Brigade, including the 2nd Battalion, on the afternoon of 6 August. Although the Brigade was a ghost of the unit that had landed in April

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news of the coming attack rekindled their fighting spirit. Charles Bean, a correspondent at Anzac, noted the lift in morale ‘the prevailing thought was: it’s the turn of the 1st Brigade to show what it can do’…

Before dawn on 6 August 138 desperately needed replacements for the 2nd Battalion landed in Anzac Cove. Stepping ashore behind their commander Lt La Touche was the boy Jack Harris. Harris had been such a favourite in training camps and on the transport that he had been made Lance Corporal.

He had been in the AIF barely two months!

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Letter from La Touche to Jack’s Mother

China War Medal awarded to his Grandfather A.B. Alfred Harris We can only wonder what it was like for La Touche, Harris and the other reinforcements as they made their way up the winding path called Artillery Road in the darkness. Preparations were being made for the attack. Artillerymen were lugging heavy shells, Service Corps and fatigue party men were stumbling under the weight of ammunition and ration crates, the nightmare scene lit only by the ghostly light of shielded candle lamps.

As day broke they found themselves packed into the reserve trenches of Browns Dip with the

Jack Harris and another Cadet officer from 28th Militia Battalion

He Died For Freedom and Honor John Auguste Emil Harris 440 survivors of the battalion that should have numbered over 1000. The veterans were living skeletons. They were too busy sharpening bayonets, filling ammunition pouches and stitching white recognition panels to their tunics to welcome or familiarizes the newcomers.

The 2m deep trenches were pits of indescribable filth. Foetid air was thick with the smell of decay. In the background shells exploded above the Turkish trenches less than 200m away. The diminutive Harris must have found it a terrifying world of frightened angry men.

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A Young Australian Called to War

“A Grave For Them Who Fell At Lonesome Pine” Haris’s Parents cut from a newspaper

1914-15 Star Medal

British War Medal

At 2pm the ground shook when mines, that had been dug under the Turkish positions and packed with explosives, were detonated. The 1st Brigade filtered through the maze of trenches towards fighting pits and saps, some within 50m of the enemy’s line. The barrage intensified. At 4:30 a British warship ran in close to the shore and added its shells.

An hour later the barrage stopped. Before the men could adjust to the silence the air was torn with whistle blasts as Australian commanders gave the signal to attack. Awaiting them were the men of Colonel Tevfik Bey’s 47th Regiment.

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Victory Medal

With the afternoon sun setting behind them the Australians sprang toward the Ottoman lines. It was a journey of seconds before most of the 3rd and 4th Battalions were leaping into the enemy’s shattered defences, bayoneting the shell-shocked Turks. But on the right, where the 2nd Battalion attacked, there was a very low mound, less than knee high, that hid a vital secret. In front of them the Turkish trenches were covered with rooves made of heavy pine logs!

The obstacle caused the assault wave to stop for a second. It was all the Turkish machine gunners on the flank needed. The raking burst tore through flesh killing or wounding most of the attackers.

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Killed In Action 8/8/15 One of those hit was 21-year-old Private Fred Clark, a shop assistant from Stanmore. Looking to his side he saw Lance Corporal Jack Harris severely wounded lying just outside the Turkish trenches.

Jack Harris’s life ended on the Turkish parapet. Lt La Touche would be mortally wounded in the trench fighting a few hours later. For three days the Turks launched counter-attacks. The Australians held. 2277 of them had been killed or badly wounded, half the attacking force. 1530 Turks were killed and 4750 wounded. Lone Pine was hailed a victory. The other attempts to break out of Anzac had failed.

Without conclusive evidence Alfred and Alphonsine Harris did not believe their son was dead.

Their hopes were finally dashed when his identity disc was posted to them in 1916.

In November the Harris collection will be displayed at the New Anzac Mem Memorial em morri Centenary Project in Hyde Park, Sydney.

Jack Harris’ Identity Disk

Photographs 1. Jack Harris in cadet officer uniform.

2. China Medal and New Zealand Medal to AB Alfred Harris.

3. Permission to Enlist Form.

4. 1914–15 Star Trio of service medals for Jack Harris along with his death plaque.

5. Letter from La Touche to Harris’s mum promising to look after the boy but reminding her that ‘they are both in God’s hands and he doeth all things well.’

6. Lone Pine that Harris’s parents had cut from the newspaper.

7. Young Australians at Anzac with a hand grenade.

8. Identity disc and the draft of a Christmas card from Jack to his mother.

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Balinese Keris Symbolism In pre-colonial Bali, all men owned at least one keris.

This marked, in part, their status as warriors.

Words By Paul Duffy & Wasim Johnston

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he keris is a traditional Balinese short sword or dagger, sometimes wavy, sometimes straight, today seen in dance performances or on days of great ceremonial importance.

In pre-colonial Bali, all men owned at least one keris. This marked, in part, their status as warriors.

Since all of a ruler’s adult male subjects were expected to fight in his wars, as instruments of royal agency, keris defined manhood in relation to a certain kind a social order. Keris also marked distinctions of rank: high-status men, “nyungklut” their keris, wore them on the backs, hilts peeking over this shoulders, others “nyelet” their keris, wore them at their waists. The way in which a keris was worn was also dependent upon the occasion. For a man to step outside the walls of his compound without a keris was once a social (and legal) offence, a kind of culturally defined indecent exposure. Even in the 1930s when

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the colonial government had eradicated warfare, men were still required (at least in some villages) to wear their keris to meetings and for all ritual and state occasions (Covarrubias).

His keris could, in certain contexts, even represent a man; someone who could not attend a meeting could send his keris in his place, a man of rank could marry a low-ranking woman by proxy, using one of his lesser keris. Keris are rather obvious phallic symbols, in marriage rites, the groom still stabs a keris through a small bamboo mat to symbolise the sexual relation between husband and wife even though nowadays his wedding may be the only occasion on which a man is likely to wear a keris.

On 28 April 1908 the Dutch blasted the oldest, largest and most sacred Balinese palace to rubble.

The King and many of his followers were killed.

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With the defeat of Klungkung in 1908 the Dutch completed their conquest of Bali and incorporated the island into the Dutch East Indies.

This event and the lead up period of friction over the preceding fifty years is covered in Margaret Weiner’s excellent book Visible & Invisible Realms.

The questions of what their action meant and its continued significance in contemporary Klungkung, form the basis of her complex anthropological history.

In traditional Bali, keris were often ornately decorated and bejewelled, and thus, expensive. The keris was one of a man’s most valuable possessions, from both a sekala and a niskala point of view. It was the essence of his authority and power. As a keris passed from generation to generation it accumulated power and often acquired a personality of its own.

Much like our Arthurian legends, legends abound in Bali of keris with curses or special attributes.

Every Balinese knows that in addition to the sekala – the palpable, material, concrete reality perceptible to the senses – there is the niskala, numinous and invisible. The invisible world is characterised in a variety of ways. It is, first, sunia, empty, quiet.

Balinese play upon the theme of visibility in their ritual practices. The temples of Bali have few images, mainly they contain god-houses, miniature

pavilions complete with roofs and doors. The gods rarely manifest themselves (at least in this era) in visible forms.

For those attracted to cosmological speculation, the most important lesser manifestations of Divinity are concerned as the underlying order of the visible world. Although growing in importance since the 1970s as attempts are made to reconcile Balinese practices with the principle that all Indonesians believe in one supreme deity, for the most part these forms of Divinity are primarily relevant to priests and others interested in metaphysics. Most Balinese are far more concerned with the deities worshipped in, and known as the gods of, specific, local temples, especially the gods of their village temples and the deified ancestors in each compound’s house temple.

Differences in ritual practice from village to village are tangible expressions of deep feeling that numerous beings impinge on the visible world in peculiarly individualised and localised ways.

But the invisible forces affecting human affairs are not always benevolent, and indeed it is impossible to understand Balinese ritual practice unless other divinities are taken into account. Most important of these are the tut-kala, “demons”, malign and destructive aspects of the invisible world.

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Balinese Keris - Symbolism

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There is a certain ambiguity here in Balinese usage.

Although niskala may refer to all non-visible agents, the term more often is used in a marked sense to designate benevolent forces. Ordinarily they are regarded as invisible agents that have a negative effect on human harmony and wellbeing.

In the 2000 edition of Arms Cavalcade, Alan Maisey wrote an article, The Keris and the Naga. In this article he referred to Margaret Weiner’s book Visible and Invisible Realms, and discussed the analysis of the gift of an heirloom keris in the 19th Century.

Alan Maisey writes: “Where it was given, the binding effect of the naga bound giver to receiver, and vice versa. Such a gift was evidence of the love of the giver for the receiver, and could be a grant of power to the receiver. The link which the keris established between ancestral custodians and present custodian provided protection against enemies, both seen and unseen, and this protection could take effect at a distance. Thus the keris acted as a unifying force, bringing together past and present in one dimension, and dispersion over distance in another dimension.�

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When we consider Bali now, and we think of it as an incredibly well-endowed society in the artistic sense, what we are actually seeing is not at all traditional Bali, but rather a Bali that has been created post puputan

by European influences and economic needs.

Bali pre-puputan, and stretching back into time, was regarded by people from outside Bali as a rather dangerous, unpleasant place to be.

But an interesting example of Balinese craftsmanship is their keris, the weapon of Indonesian men, now worn mostly as a symbol and ornament.

In this article I have illustrated 7 Balinese keris, all slightly different to show the different elements of a Balinese keris. These elements are similar to the keris of Java, Madura and Sumatra and other areas in the Indonesian archipelago. The keris from Bali are different to the keris from other islands. Many are longer, bigger, the hilts look different and so do the sheaths.

The status of a man may be determined by the richness of his keris. Only the blade is sacred, and the gold parts (if any), the precious stones and ivory can be pawned in case of need and turned into cash. In more

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recent years the advent of the collector, both in Bali and on a worldwide basis has influenced the market.

There are keris that are very valuable, covered with beaten gold, with handles shaped like gods or demons (keris 3, 5 and 7), some set with rubies and rose-cut diamonds, gold hilts with precious stones are the most stylish, but there are some made of horn, ebony and other precious woods.

The sheath not only protects the keris from outside influences, both physical and magic, but also insulates the vibrations emanating from the keris itself, which may act dangerously on human beings.

The sheaths of the super-ornate keris are wood covered in brass, gold and silver (keris 1, 3, 5, 7) The Balinese also made keris of great simplicity with the sheath and hilt of a beautifully mottled precious wood. (keris 1 and 4).

The Neka Art Museum at Ubud in Bali was founded by Pande Wayan Suteja Neka, originally to display his art collection. However, by 2006 Suteja Neka had collected many keris and extended the Neka Art Museum so he could display his collection of keris for the public to enjoy.

In his book, in English, Understanding Balinese Keris, An Insider’s Perspective, Suteja Neka says: “But why have an exhibition like this at a museum that mostly displays paintings? While keris are weapons they are also works of art. Just as the oceans are blue and the mountains are green, so keris and art are inseparable. Consider their perfectly balanced shapes that enable them to stand upright on their own and not due to their spiritual power. Their amazing blade patterns are made of different coloured metals, their intricately tooled handles and sheaths are made of precious metals set with gemstones or finely carved rare woods, ivory, horn or another.”

The keris display on the second floor of the museum’s main building in Ubud, now contains more than 300 blades, including more than twenty heirloom ones. The remainder of the collection was created by contemporary keris makers from Java and Madura, including several exceptional ones by Balinese swordsmiths, who have displayed great skills and mastery in this demanding art.

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Balinese Keris - Symbolism

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The hilts on keris 1, 2 and 4 are called bebondolan (like a munia bird) have a plain stylized bird shape, and were worn by commoners in the past.

The hilts on keris 3 and 5 Togogan. A small statue beautifully crafted to resemble a mythological figure and used by aristocrats and royalty in the past. The hilt on keris 5 has had stones set around the base and on the figure. A Dewa Bayu hilt, Dewa Bayu was a symbol of prosperity, as he was thought to be able push the clouds to trigger rains and thereby fertilise the ground.

The hilt on keris 6 is made of carved ebony and decorated with pieces of bone.

The sheath or scabbard is also an integral part of the keris. A scabbard is defined by the shape of its crosspiece. The scabbard on keris 7 is called axelike, as the cross piece has a squared front end and rounded back. The cross piece is made of ivory, which was a material reserved for royalty and aristocrats.

The cross pieces on keris 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 have rounded ends (a mango seed) and could be used by anyone. Although the cross piece on keris 3 is carved from an elephant’s tooth, in an ornate silver chased casing for the scabbard. This keris would not have been made for a commoner.

Keris were previously viewed as weapons, they are now considered to be potent symbols and a proud part of Bali’s rich cultural heritage and are integrated

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into Balinese life. Keris cannot be separated from the supernatural realm because the art of making them is very difficult and requires spirituality that not everyone has. The magical power of keris is due to the opinions of experts who are highly respected by certain groups in the community. These individuals are believed to have charisma, spiritual power, control over supernatural forces, and involvement in mystical matters. The qualities of keris are no longer merely rational ones but are much more special in addition to being works of art. They are objects that are deeply rooted in the past, are full of great secrets and the essence of mysticism, and continue to attract attention and interest today.

It is not possible to finish this article without mentioning Klungkung again, and quoting the words of Margaret Weiner.

“Klungkung remains as invisible to outsiders in the 1990s as it was in the first half of the 19th Century. In those days, Europeans who came to Bali stayed in Kuta, to be entertained by Mads Lange, in his factory and Kuta’s accessibility, like Klungkung’s invisibility persists.

Like the Dutch of the 19th Century, the tourists who sun themselves on Kuta’s beaches, and drink beer and eat pasta in Kuta’s restaurants, know little or nothing of Klungkung. It is merely a place to pass through on the way to the beach of Candidasa in the east, or on route to the temple of Besakih in the north.

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Oddly, the tour books do not mention the looming, moss-covered brick structure set back from the main road in the large empty courtyard slightly southwest of Kerta Gosa, this is the Great Door (Pamedal Agung) once the point of transition between the “outer” world of commoners and the mysterious “inner” world of the King whose very title was Dalem (“inside”). The Door remains a potent reminder of the power of Klungkung’s kings.

As for the keris, emblems of both potency and fall, they have vanished too. In museums they have become signs in a different discourse, no longer identified as I Lobar or I Bangawan Canggu, but as “keris, Klungkung, gold hilt, wooden sheath.” Some have been lost altogether. Over half of the Klungkung “state keris” donated by the colonial government to Leiden’s Museum of Ethnology after the conquest were stolen in the 1960s.

The keris and the Door have the potential to remind people that Klungkung is more than a typical town in modern Indonesia – with its government offices, night markets, and uniformed school children. It is also the centre of a tiny land filled to bursting with an invisible populations of spirits, who busily patrol the borders and sound the wooden gongs of the palace to warn people of epidemics..

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References 1. Understanding Balinese Keris. An Insiders Perspective

by Pande Wayan Suteja Neka.

2. Keris Bali, Bersejarah, Neka Art Museum by Pande Wayan Suteja Neka and Basuki Teguh Yuwono.

3. Visible and Invisible Realms by Margaret Weiner.

4. Island of Bali by Miguel Covarrubais.

5. Bali, Sekala and Niskala Volume 1 & 2 by Fred B Eiseman Jr. 6. Traditional Weapons of the Indonesian Archipelago by Albert G van Zonneveld.

7. Secrets of Bali – Fresh Light on the Morning of the World

by Jonathon Copeland and with Ni Wayan Murri 8. Kerisattosanj.com 9. The Keris and the Naga, Alan Maisey, Arms Cavalcade Vol. No 3 2000.

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Carbines of the US Civil War In 1863 the Spencer Rifle Company signed their first st contract to provide 2000 rifles to the State of Massachusetts. usetts.

Words By Peter Dahdah

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he Civil War in America marked an era of profound change of America and the World.

This was the first modern war, because it was a turning point in mobile battlefield tactics and the beginning of mass concentrations of firepower.

The Civil War saw the end of the percussion, muzzleloading rifle and the birth of the self-contained cartridge firearm that marked the manufacture in large quantities of the breech loading, repeating rifles.

In 1863 the Spencer Rifle Company signed their first contract to provide 2000 rifles to the State of Massachusetts. Shortly afterwards the factory retooled so they could produce the shorter 22” barrel carbines instead of the 30” rifles. The lower costs was attractive to the government. Barrel making was one of the costliest and most time consuming tasks that a firearms manufacturer performed. Moreover it meant that such items as the long firearm, sling swivel and two additional barrel bands were not required. Each carbine cost $15 less than a rifle.

General Ramsay, the newly appointed Chief of Ordnance was inundated with requests from field commandeers for Spencer repeaters, and the Spencer Rifle Company was having trouble keeping up with the demand.

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In April 1864 an order to the company included this:

“I am, therefore, to request that you will spare no exertions to increase your production of carbines under your contract with this department, of December 24, 1864, with the reference to the specified monthly deliveries in that contract.”

George Balch Capt. Ordnance Principal Asst.

Chief of Ordnance In this article I will illustrate 13 Civil War Carbines.

Over fifty types of carbines were made for the Civil War. The carbine was made for cavalry, and I’ll also illustrate a cavalry sling and a cartridge pouch.

The carbine as a testing ground for many different inventions for breech loading firearms.

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The Spencer Cartridge Pouch I have illustrated an example of this pouch which is made of smooth, polished black leather and contains a tin liner to hold six 7 round packets of Spencer Ammunition. There are some variations to the interval divider plates. This pouch was worn on the user’s belt.

Cavalry Sling I have illustrated a Civil war period cavalry sling. This Civil War sling was wider than the earlier Indian War period example. The sling was worn across the shoulder and the swizel hook was affixed to the carbine sling ring. The photo of the Federal Cavalryman (circa 1864) shows a cavalryman standing and wearing a sling with a Spencer carbine attached.

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Carbines of the US Civil vil War

The Spencer Repeating Carbine This carbine was made in .52 cal using No 56, Spencer rim-fire cartridge. The round barrel was .22” long, rifled with 3 grooves. Total length 39”, weight 8 pounds 4 ounces, with a blade front sign, sliding left rear sight.

A two piece stock, with the fore-arm held to the barrel by one oval band. There is a sling ring on the left side.

The breech is marked “SPENCER REPEATING RIFILE CO., BOSTON, MASS PAT’D MARCH 6, 1860”. This carbine is loaded through a tubular magazine, passing through the butt of the stock, and holding 7 copper, rim-fire cartridges, which are fed forward to the breech by the action of a compressed spring inside the magazine tube.

Pushing down the trigger guard loading lever, dropped the breech-block, extracting the fired shell, and moved a cartridge out of the magazine into the breech. On closing the lever, the cartridge was pushed into the chamber, with the carrier block and breech pin closing the breech and magazine, and preparing the piece for firing by a side hammer on the right of the frame. Spencer arms made after 1867 were rifled with 6 grooves.

The Sharps Single Shot Cartridge Carbine The Sharps carbine used the frame and mechanism of the old Sharps percussion system, but were adapted by factory alteration to the use of a metallic cartridge. This was a .50 rim fire cartridge. The barrel was rifled with 6 grooves, and had a total length of 39 inches. There is a two piece stock, blade front sight, sliding leaf rear sight marked “R.S. LAWRENCE PATENTED FEB 15 1859.” The barrel is marked “SHARPS RIFLE MANUFG CO. HARTFORD CONN” and “NEW MODEL 1863”. The right side of the lock was marked “R.S. LAWRENCE PAT. APRIL 12, 1859” and “C. SHARPS PAT. OCT. 5, 1852.” On the left side was stamped “C. SHARPS PAT. SEPT. 12, 1848”.

To operate, the trigger guard lever was pulled downward and forward, dropping the vertical breech-block for loading. Firing was by a side hammer. Extraction was by a lever pivoted below the chamber, activated by the downward movement of the breech block.

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The Burnside Carbine The Burnside Carbines were the first small arms purchased by the US Government to use a metallic cartridge, calibre, .54. This carbine was invented and patented by A.E. Burnside of Bristol, Rhode Island in 1856. Burnside set up the Bristol Firearms Company, which failed in 1860.

The company was re-organised as Burnside Arms Company with a factory at Providence, Rhode Island.

Burnside assigned his patents to the new company for the benefit of his creditors.

Compressing a curved spring lever-latch against the trigger, unlocks the action. The trigger guard, by double hinge action, can then be lowered, dropping and pivoting the breech block upward, facilitating the leading of the breech by a conical, rearward – tapering brass cartridge, exploded through a hole in the base by a conventional percussion cap placed on the cone of the breech block. Returning the trigger guard to the closed position moves the breech-block forward, seating the forward bullet part of the cartridge in the chamber.

The Smith Carbine The Smith Carbine was surpassed in government procurement only by the Spencer Sharps and Burnside carbines. The Smith was a .50 calibre carbine with a 21 5/8” round barrel, filed with 3 grooves. The walnut half-stock has a steel butt plate, the 9” forearm is held by one oval band. Pressing a lifter, in front of the trigger, upwards, raises a long spring catch on top of the barrel, and allows the carbine to break open on a hinge, exposing the chamber for insertion of a special rubber cartridge with a thin paper over a hole in the base, which allowed the percussion cap to reach the powder.

The walls of the rubber cartridge were supposed to act as a gas check.

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Carbines of the US Civil War

The Gallagher Single Shot Cartridge .50 Calibre Carbine The Gallagher carbine also used the Spencer .56-56 cartridge. A round barrel, rifled with 3 grooves, and a walnut half-stock ending at the frame, there was no forearm. A swivel ring is on a 4” sling ring rod, on the left side.

The action is identical with the Gallagher percussion carbine. When the trigger guard is unlatched and depressed, the barrel swings forward downward on the frame, elevating and exposing the chamber for loading the copper shell cartridge. The mechanism was invented by Mahlon J Gallagher of Savannah, Georgia, originally for the percussion system. The carbine was then modified for the Spencer cartridge.

Remington Single Shot Cartridge Carbine .56-50 Spencer Cartridge Remington supplied over 20,000 carbines during the Civil War period. The 20”, round barrel is rifled with 3 broad grooves. Total length is 33.5”. The Remington action type, two-piece walnut stock with carbine fore-arm held to the barrel by one band. Sling ring on the left side.

The Split Breech type was replaced by the Rolling Block Type, fitted for a .50-70 government cartridge, a total length 38.5”. The typical Remington, rolling block action was loaded by cocking the hammer and swinging the breech-block backward by pressure of the thumb on the thumb piece. The backward motion of the breechblock opened the breech and served to operate the extractor, and at the same time placed the hammer at halfcock, securing the loaded breech.

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Maynard Breech-Loading Carbine .50 Calibre This carbine was invented by Dr Edward Maynard, a dental surgeon of Washington D.C. He also invented the Maynard tape primer. The Maynard Carbine was one of the early, capping, metallic cartridge arms, and the first to use the expansion of the cartridge case as a gas check. This carbine has a 20” barrel, rifled with 3 grooves, partly round and partly octagonal, with a walnut half-stock without comb, and no forearm. Lowering the triggerguard, tips the breech upward for loading with a fairly thick, unprimed, brass metallic cartridge. Remington Single Shot Cartridge Carbine .56-50 Spencer Cartridge Remington supplied over 20,000 carbines during the Civil War period. The 20”, round barrel is rifled with 3 broad grooves. Total length is 33.5”. The Remington action type, two-piece walnut stock with carbine fore-arm held to the barrel by one band. Sling ring on the left side.

The Split Breech type was replaced by the Rolling Block Type, fitted for a .50-70 government cartridge, a total length 38.5”. The typical Remington, rolling block action was loaded by cocking the hammer and swinging the breech-block backward by pressure of the thumb on the thumb piece. The backward motion of the breechblock opened the breech and served to operate the extractor, and at the same time placed the hammer at halfcock, securing the loaded breech.

Starr Single Shot Cartridge Carbine – Calibre .54 This carbine was invested by Eben T Starr in 1858, and located in New York. The 21” barrel is rifled with 5 grooves, and has a total lengthy of 37.5/8th”. A walnut half-stock with a brass butt plate, and the 8.5” forearm was held by one brass band.

The action is opened by unlatching the rear end of the trigger guard and pulling it downward, which depresses the breech-block, opens the breech and operates the ejector. In appearance the Starr is similar to the Sharps though the mechanism differs in that the split breech-block is pivoted and swings down backwards.

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Carbines of the US Civil War

Merrill Breech-Loading Carbine .54 calibre th

The 22.1/8 ” round barrel is rifled with 3 wide grooves. Total length 37.3/8th”. The walnut stock is held by a .5” band and a patch box in the butt containing a square cone.

The carbine is operated by a lever latched under the rear sight base, and lying flush with the surface of the breech tang. To load, the hammer is cocked. Back pressure on two flat, knurled side releases, unlatches the level permits it to be raised backward, withdrawing the hinged, sliding, copper-faced breech bolt, and exposing the breech for insertion of the nitrate treated paper cartridge.

Palmer Single Shot Carbine The action on this bolt-action carbine was invented by William Palmer of New York, and patented in December 1863.

This was a .52 calibre, using a .56 -50 Spencer Cartridge. The 20” round barrel is rifled with 5 grooves. Total length 36”. The 27” walnut carbine stock retains the barrel with one band.

The receiver is marked “WM PALMER PATENT DEC 22, 1863”, and on the lock plate “US” and “EG LAMSON & CO. WINDSOR VT. 1 865”.

The breech of this bolt action mechanism is unlocked by turning up, and withdrawing to the rear, a bolt handle, which is locked by the threads of a sectional screw when the bolt handle is down.

1,001 Palmer carbines were purchased by the government during the Civil War, but since they were completed in 1865, it is doubtful whether any saw service. They were the first bolt-action, metallic cartridge arms to be accepted into service in the USA

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Gwyn and Campbell Breech loading Percussion Carbine This carbine was invented by Edwin Gwyn and A.C. Campbell, of Hamilton Ohio.

It was patented October 21, 1862 and manufactured by the Cosmopolitan Arms Company of Hamilton, Ohio.

Calibre. 52, the 20” round barrel octagonal for 3.5” at the breech, is rifled with 3 grooves. Total length 38.9” Walnut half-stock and no forearm.

The sling ring slides on 2.75” rod on the left side of the frame, it has a blued barrel, butt plate, breech tang.

The long, flat-faced hammer, lock plate and trigger guard lever, are all cased hardened in mottled colours.

The carbines were also made with a tinned finished, for Navy use.

They are marked on the right side of the breech “UNION”, ‘RIFLE” and behind the hammer on the lock plate “GWYN & CAMPBELL”, “PATENTED” “1862”, “HAMILTON, O”, in 4 lines.

Unlatching and lowering the trigger guard withdraws the breech-block away from the breech. The carbine used a paper or linen cartridge which was seated in the chamber by sliding it along a groove in the top of the breech-block.

Joslyn Single Shot Carbine .52 Rimfire Calibre The carbine uses a .56 Spencer cartridge. The 22” round barrel is rifled with 3 grooves. The one piece stock is held to the barrel by one oval band.

The action consisted of a swinging block, hinged on the left. To open the breech, a pin on the right of breechblock is pulled out and the block turned to the left. An inclined surface inside the block, seats the cartridge.

Another plane acts as an extractor.

The later improvements resulted in a cartridge model in which the breech block locking device was made heavier and more reliable. Operated by a more reliable spring release knob.

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Carbines of the US Civil War

Sharps and Hankins Single Shot Cartridge Carbine .52 rim-fire calibre – later adopted to a Centre-Fire Cartridge The round barrel, 23 5/8th”, is rifled with 6 grooves. The carbine has a walnut half-stock, without a forearm. A sling swizel is set on the butt stock.

Depressing a stud under the frame and swinging the trigger guard level downward, slid the barrel forward along the metal frame projection. A sliding safety device was on the left side of the hammer. Extraction was by a catch on the breech, which retained the shell when the barrel was moved forward.

The arms were first made by C Sharps & Company, 1857-63. In 1863 this company became associated with William C Hankins to form Sharps & Hankins.

Conclusion or Post Civil War Carbines were not new. This category of shoulder arms arose in America as their mounted services needed a short shoulder arm, easily transported and handled by cavalry-men while on horseback, yet powerful enough and with sufficient range, to give him a weapon with which to fight dismounted.

The first was the US Flintlock Carbine Model 1807, which was originally intended for friendly Indians, but never issued.

This article illustrates US Civil war carbines. When the war broke out in 1861 there was an immediate need for an abundance of serviceable arms. This was the end of the percussion ignition period and the beginning of the metallic cartridge era, gas-tight metallic cartridges were in the embryo stage at this time.

This resulted in numerous patents covering breech-loading arms in rapid succession of new and improved carbines appeared. A feature in many of these patents was the ingenuity in evading patent claims of other systems.

Bear in mind that the development of the breech loader was dependent upon the evolution of the cartridge.

The most notable of the pre-Civil War metallic cartridges was the discovery in 1856 by Dr Edward Maynard, a dental surgeon in Washington DC that the springy walls of his metallic cartridge expanded when fired to form a perfect gas seal at the breech.

Therefore the first breech-loading systems applied to cavalry carbines. Even though much of their mobility was advantageous in reaching positions of importance, an adequate weapon was needed to obtain, or defend these positions.

The government suddenly found itself plagued by inventors, each of whom could produce countless testimonials of the inestimable value of their arms, and their decided superiority over everything else that had been offered.

By the time it ended in Confederate surrender in 1865, the Civil War proved to be the costliest war ever fought on American soil, with some 620,000 soldiers killed, millions more injured and the population and territory of the South devastated. On the eve of victory, the Union lost its great leader when President Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre in Washington on April 15, 1865.

The demand for carbines fell, and the carbines were overtaken by further improvements in technology. The postCivil War demand was for repeating rifles, the Winchester.

I thank Paul Duffy for his assistance in writing this article.

References 1 Carbines of the Civil War 1861-1865 by John D McAulay 2. Identifying Old US Musket, Rifles and Carbines by Arcadi Gluckman 3. Civil War Carbines from Service to Sentiment by Andrew F Lustyik 4. Spencer Repeating Firearms by Roy M Marcot

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JOHN JOSEPH WALLACE John Wallace was recruited as an artillery gunner and joined the contingent comprising an infantry battalion of 522 men and 24 officers, and an artillery battery of 212 men.

Words By John Newton

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he sky above the Waverley Cemetery on 14th November, 1930 remained clear as a large group of mourners followed the six police pallbearers who carried the coffin of Inspector John Joseph Wallace to his grave site.

Such was the reputation of John Wallace that a great many echelons of Sydney’s society were represented amongst those gathered for his farewell.

State politicians, councillors, senior members of the R.A.N, seven serving and retired Superintendents of Police, Sixteen Inspectors, Police Magistrates, the General Manager of the Port Jackson and Manly Steamship Company, members of the Naval Comrades Association, the committee of the Sydney Rifle Club, prison department heads, as well as numerous serving police officers, hospital representatives and members of the general public were in attendance.

John Wallace had left an indelible mark on those with whom he came into contact, initially as a seaman, then a soldier, a gifted marksman, and, finally, as a high ranking police officer in the Water Police.

John Wallace was born on 17th October 1859 at Whitegate, Cork, Ireland. Having a father who was a member of the Coastguard it was always probable that his career path would follow family tradition and that he would join the Royal navy. This he did at Kingston, Ireland in 1875, aged 15.

In his early twenties Wallace emigrated to Australia where he received his discharge from the Navy and soon after joined the N.S.W. Police Department as a Probationary Constable.

Acceptance by the British Government of the N.S.W. Government’s offer to provide a contingent of troops to participate in the conflict in the Sudan saw thousands of young men flock to recruiting stations in the hope of being accepted for military service.

John Wallace was recruited as an artillery gunner and joined the contingent comprising an infantry battalion of 522 men and 24 officers, and an artillery battery of 212 men.

This military venture was not universally popular with all sections of the community. In fact, in some regions, particularly rural and mining, there was fierce opposition. The Bulletin newspaper editorials were vehement in their condemnation of sending troops overseas.

On the third of March 1885, the N.S.W. contingent boarded two ships, the “Iberia” and the “Australasian”, at Circular Quay and departed for the Sudan - often found with the spelling ‘Soudan’.

It is a tragic irony that the most serious casualties during the brief three months of military operation occurred before the ships had even cleared Sydney Heads.

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John Joseph Wallace

A spectator vessel was struck by the “Iberia” and two women were tragically killed, one being the wife of a departing soldier. Apart from relatively minor accidents and cases of typhoid fever, the casualty list in the Sudan was very short. A number of soldiers who showed symptoms of typhoid fever were quarantined, both on the journey back to Australia and on arrival at the Quarantine Station.

John Wallace saw no official action and he and his artillery battery spent much of the time overseas doing mind numbing drill exercises and watching

gangers lay railway tracks. According to soldiers’ diaries the men were very pleased when, in May 1885, the British Government decided to abandon the campaign.

On 17th May 1885 the Australian contingent sailed for home on board the “S.S. Arab” after a rather inglorious three months.

On his return to Sydney on 23 June 1885 John Wallace resumed his police career and began his advance through the ranks. He later applied for military service in the Boer War, again as a gunner,

The departure of The S.S. Iberia and The S.S. Australasian at Circular Quay, March 1885.

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but his application was declined. It was deemed that he would be more useful as a physical education instructor at Victoria Barracks preparing the recruits physically for the tasks ahead in South Africa.

John Wallace was obviously very physically competent and a good mentor. Newspapers reports at the time list his successes as the captain of the extremely successful Waverley Tug - of –War team.

Glowing testimonials and presentations were often made to him by his team mates for his outstanding tutelage.

He also regularly organised an annual Police Firearms Carnival.

Wallace was a founding member of the N.S.W. N.R.A. and remained on the Executive Council for many years.

The visit to Sydney in 1908 of the United States Fleet comprising sixteen battleships and commanded

by Rear Admiral Sperry was a cause of much celebration in the city.

Together with street processions, banquets and a Naval and Military Review in Centennial Park, it was decided that a rifle match between marksmen from the visiting battleships and members of the Council

of the N.R.A. of New South Wales would be held at the Randwick rifle range on 26 August 1908. The competition was to be shot over 200, 500 and 600 yards and comprise two teams of twenty men each.

John Wallace had long been recognised as a noted marksman. There are many medals named to him in existence which validate his numerous shooting successes. A photograph of his marksman’s patch and some of his competition medals accompany this article.

United States Atlantic Fleet and Council of N.R.A of N.S.W. Teams.

Match shot at Randwick, August, 28/’08 U.S.A. 1884, N.R.A. 1755.

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John Joseph Wallace

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 1905 Top Row - from left to right J. H. Thompson, Sergt. J. J. Wallace, C. Tayler, Lieut. H. Darkin (Secretary) Bottom Row - H. E. Mills (Hon Treasurer) Capt J. J. Paine, E. J. Brown (Chairman) Lieut - Col W. Holmes, D. S. O.

As a founding and executive member of the Council of the N.R.A. he was an obvious choice as a participant in the competition.

My thanks goes to Jim Noble and Bob Climpson of Noble Numismatics, Macquarie Street, Sydney for permitting me to view and photograph the Campaign and shooting medals of John Wallace.

For the United States team this event was not to be simply a social, goodwill exercise.

Their preparation was taken very seriously.

So focused were they that they camped at the shooting range overnight after practising throughout the day preceding the competition.

The N.S.W. squad took the event a little less seriously and underestimated the opposition.

The newspapers reporting on the day made note of the determination of the U.S. team and particularly commented that the use of the American ‘sharp

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John Wallace’s National Rifle Assocciation Members Ticket - No. 7.

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nosed’ bullets proved to be a distinct advantage when shooting at targets over the 600 yard distance. The variation in wind speed caused less effect and considerably less elevation was required when sighting at such long distances.

The assumption could be made that the N.S.W. competitors used standard military ammunition.

At the conclusion of the competition the U.S. team was declared the victor with a total score of 1884, outpointing the N.S.W. result of 1755.

To John Wallace’s chagrin, every one of the twenty shooters on the U.S. team bettered his score of 81.

At the evening’s formal dinner, specially struck medals were presented to each member of both teams. See accompanying pic. To numismatists, these 40 named medals are of special significance and they realise very respectable sale prices when one rarely comes up at auction.

John Joseph Wallace’s police career progressed very commendably and he was awarded promotion to the rank of Inspector of the Sydney Water Police in 1915.

His many accomplishments while on duty did not go unnoticed.

In 1919 Sir Walter Davidson, Governor of New South Wales presented The King’s Police Medal to Inspector Wallace for Distinguished and Meritorious service.

Shortly after, at another ceremony, organised by Sydney’s mercantile community, he was presented with a “substantial cheque” in recognition of his services to the public of Sydney.

John Wallace’s service record notes his saving of “no fewer than seven lives on Sydney Harbour” and rendering valuable service in numerous accidents on the waterways around the city.

As a token of respect and gratitude at his retirement celebration in 1919 Inspector John Wallace was presented with an inscribed gold watch by his fellow officers.

After a life well lived, John Wallace died on 12 November, 1930.

References 1. Jim Noble - Noble Numismatics 2. John O’Connor - Author “Shooting Awards & Prize Medals to Australian Military Forces.”

3. Michael Tyquin – Author “Sudan 1885.”

4. Cecil Bull - A.A.C.S.A.

Inspector John Wallace’s inscribed gold watch.

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Silver-Mounted Flintlock Pistols for an Ottoman Dignitary A Pair of Silver-Mounted Flintlock Pistols including chased and facetted butt-caps, side plate with scrolls, a hawk and a figure. The false ramrod sheathed in silver.

Words By Tony Wood

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hese long barrelled, large pistols are not duelling or target pistols. The silver mounted flintlock pistols have 32 cm barrels retained by chased silver capucines at the muzzles and are 12 mm calibre. The breeches are engraved and gilt, and stamped with three marks. The locks have gold foliate inlay, and the stocks are inlaid with fine silver scrolls and engraved floral plaques.

The silver gilt furniture includes chased and facetted butt-caps, and a side plate with scrolls, a hawk and a figure. The false ramrod is sheathed in silver.

When the French Revolution swept away the decorated exuberance associated with the Bourbons, the Turks continued to import pistols in the rococo style, these French-style, large flintlocks are called Kubur, or horse pistols in both Turkey and the Balkans. The holsters in which they were carried in front of the saddle are known as Kuburluk.

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Pistols made in the style of earlier western European examples (late 17th and early 18th century) were very popular throughout the Ottoman Empire during the late 18th and 19th centuries. The workmanship of these pistols is extremely fine: the stock is profusely inlaid with scrolling silver wire and the edges are fitted with engraved and chased silver pieces which have been expertly pinned to the stocks.

I think the pistols show strong French influence in their form and decoration, (long barrel, trigger turned back, and the chased silver gilt decoration on the buttcap and trigger guard has hints of a fleur-de-lis).

However nowhere on this pistol is there a maker’s name or mark that can be identified, there is nothing on the lock, and no proof or view marks. There are three similar marks stamped into the top of the breech, however I have not been able to identify them.

I initially assumed the pistols were made in France for the eastern market.

During the late 18th century there was a flourishing export market in such luxury manufactured goods for a specifically eastern clientele. There is no Turkish name on the lock plate or the wrist escutcheon,where sometimes the owner’s name or mark is engraved.

However I did recall seeing a fine pair of silvermounted flintlock holster pistols in Sotheby’s catalogue when they sold the fine collection of Charles Draeger in Monaco in 1987. So when I read the book published by Robert Elgood, The Arms of Greece and her Balkan Neighbours in the Ottoman Period, I wondered whether my pistols were not from France. If they had been made in France I would have expected a name or mark to show French origin. In the 18th century, France was the Ottoman’s principal European trading partner. Although pistols were being made in Turkey at this time, the Balkan arms market was dominated by the exports of Venetian gunsmiths.

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Silver-Mounted Flintlock Pistols

Elgood refers to an account by the mining expert G.B. Brocchi in a manuscript of 1802 which describes Brescian arms being taken to Pontevico about 33 kms from the city of Brescia, and from there shipped in boats down the river Oglio and on to Cremona, the duchy of Parma Reggio Emilia, Ferrara, Bologna, Venice and all Romagna and that the Brescian gunsmiths made considerable use of the fair at Senigallia, a port north of Ancona on the Italian Adriatic Coast. Merchants came in July and August from many countries, including Italy, Central Europe, and the Balkans. Dalmatians, Albanians and many Greeks purchased goods, including arms which they sold all over the Balkans. In the northern Balkans a series of gun names point to the Italian influence; breda (Brescian), prekomorske (carried by the sea), talijank (Italian).

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There was a Greek quarter in Senigallia. The Greeks took their products to the fairs, and returned with whatever was lacking in Greece and the Levant.

They bought steel products from Brescia or from Austria, through Trieste merchants, and also gun barrels.

Elgood refers to the works of F.C.H.L. Pouquerville, a French traveller and writer of the time who visited these areas and recounts a visit to Durazzo in 1806, when he considered Durazzo “a nest of pirates, a den of assassins, and the polluted receptacle of criminals who escaped from the shores of Italy.� But Pouqueville did record that corn, oil tobacco, Turkey-leather and timber was exchanged there for scarlet-cloth, serge, steel, glass, and firearms from the manufactory of Brescia, in the north of Italy.

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A Poor man’s wooden-stocked Montenegrin celina pistol , with silver mounts.

Petrovic makes the important point that some towns were famous for the silversmiths who bought arms, decorated them and then sold then on, giving the false impression that the object had been made in that particular town.

My pistols have a European, or French look. The style and shape of the stock, particularly the butt is European. However the decoration and the capucine retaining the barrel is eastern. I have illustrated a “poor mans” wooden stocked, Montenegrin celina pistol, with silver mounts, and a pair of pistols possibly made in Brescia for export to the Balkans, but these are signed “Rossi”. These pistols also have the “rat-tailed” Balkan or Montenegrin style.

I have illustrated a pair of Turkish flintlock Kerber pistols c.1800 which are similar in style to my pistols, as are the pair of pistols from the Draegar sale conducted by Sothebys in Monaco in 1987. All these pistols have a capucine holding the barrel to the stock.

The extent to which Balkan guns are Italian in origin is difficult to assess.

Certainly Italian barrels were being exported in large quantities to the Balkans and the Near East. The Italian arms historian Gaibi thought that many Balkan guns were entirely Italian made, as did Petkovic who said, “Having examined the question carefully one can only agree with them, but with qualifications. “ The huge scale of gun making in the Balkans cannot be explained unless the gunmakers made substantial quantities of locks and barrels. Italian barrels were the primary export. Since the best quality guns tend to end up in museums and collections and the worst are discarded in time, the impression of massive Italian exports is probably given greater credence than it should be.

Bear in mind also that because of the Napoleonic Wars, the British naval blockade of Europe forced the Liege merchants to abandon their customary trade routes by sea to the Levant and North Africa.

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Silver-Mounted Flintlock Pistols

The military weapons of northern Italy entered the arsenals of the Turks in large quantities. This pair of pistols does have good barrels, and the marks could have been stamped to resemble those coming from Gardone or Brescia in northern Italy.

Beaujour, a Frenchman who wrote of travel and trade between France, Greece and the Ottoman Empire on the turn of the 18th century wrote: “This taste of theirs is capricious, but it is well founded. Their armourers know how to clean a gun without polishing the barrel with a file or with pumice stone, which disfigures it. The barrels which sell well are ornamented towards the breach with sculptures, and which are inlaid with gold and silver. The stocks that are adorned with gold and silver, inlaid or carved are also in great request”.

The barrels of my pistols are well decorated with gold and sculptures.

Why were the Ottomans interested in western products? After the defeat in Vienna and the humiliating Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699, politically things had gone from bad to worse. Another lesson taken from the failed siege of Vienna in 1683 was that the Ottomans had to learn from the west, in both military practice and culture. If Istanbul was not going to control Western European cities she could at least be edified by them.

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I was interested to read of the history of Istanbul in Istanbul, A Tale of Three Cities by Bettany Hughes, an engrossing and fascinating book. Bettany Hughes makes the following comment on the Ottomans: “Meanwhile, from the reign of Sultan Selim III onwards (AD1789 - 1807) portraiture using western techniques was all the rage at the Istanbul court. At home Selim III allowed his women to keep accounts, to compose music, to practice archery. The Sultan was motivated to modernise for political rather than purely aesthetic reasons.”

Also as the global order shifted for the inhabitants of London, Paris and Berlin, and St Petersburg, the forbidden fruits of Istanbul were ever more desirable, and ever more attainable. Lord Byron’s arrival in Constantinople in AD1809, was the primary goal of his Grand Tour. He spent his first night in the city, calmly, on the water, where he was mesmerised by Constantinople’s deceptive pace. The following day tyring to spy on concubines in the Sultan’s harem through a telescope, but instead he saw a corpse being gnawed at by dogs beneath the seraglio walls. Byron was to some degree responsible for the impression of Istanbul that many millions both then and now enjoy.

The odd chance of the invention of steel-plate engraving, which meant that the poet’s feelings about

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Pair of Flintock Pistols possibly made in Brescia for export to the Balkans.

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the city would be re-imagined and made incarnate – brought Ottoman Istanbul into drawing rooms across the globe as publishers, both legitimate and illegal, started to reproduce attractively illustrated volumes of Byron’s writings.

So where has this fine pair of pistols travelled – were the barrels and the locks made in Brescia, then travelled north up into the Balkans and Greece where they have been fitted to these ornately finished stocks for presentation to the Ottoman market, and acquired by an Ottoman dignitary.

I thank Paul Duffy for his assistance in writing this article.

A Pair of Silver-Mounted Flintock Pistols for the Eastern Market.

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References 1. The Arms of Greece and Her Balkan Neighbours in the Ottoman Period, by Robert Elgood.

2. The Firearms of the Islamic World by Robert Elgood.

3. The Art of the Gunmaker, by J F Haywood V. 11.

4. Armes Anciennes, Collection Charles Draegar, Sotheby, Monaco 1987.

5. The Wallace Collection (page 91).

6. Heer De Neue Stockel.

7. Istanbul, A Tale of Three Cities by Bettany Hughes.

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Brigadier-General Davie’s Shashka The hilt and scabbard fittings are beautifully chased in silver with intricate niello work.

Words By Roger Dundas

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n the 2017 edition Tony Wood wrote an article on Caucasian pistols. I own a shashka, also from the Caucasus, that mountainous region situated between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to the west and the Caspian Sea on the eastern flank and with Turkey and Iran in the south and the plains of Russia to the north. The Caucasian states of Armenia and Georgia are old Christian nations, surrounded

by Muslim states. Armenia being one of the first countries to adopt Christianity, possibly before Rome did so.

This is relevant as there is a silver inscription plate on the scabbard which reads: “Presented to General Davie from Armenian Government, Erivan Kars Nakhichvan” The shashka is, I think, of Circassion form.

The hilt and scabbard fittings are beautifully chased in silver with intricate niello work.

The blade is probably older, and probably a western blade with two fullers. The history of shashkas is still full of unresolved mystery, which makes writing about it a complex undertaking.

The majority of the blades, especially those made prior to 1870, are European imports, not their local copies.

I’ve owned this shashka for several years, and was inspired by Tony Wood’s article to find out about General Davie. There is no date on the inscription, however I thought he may have been a British General involved with the tension over the Kars area, and the Armenian government. There was great tension and turmoil in this area at the end of WWI. Turkey had sided with Germany and they lost the war.

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On 8 October 1918 the new Sultan, Mehmet VI Vahideddin asked the former Ottoman ambassador to Britain to form a new cabinet. The Turks informed the Armenian government in Yerevan that the Turks were to withdraw the Ottoman forces. On October 30th, in accordance with the Armistice of Mudrosand, under pressure from the British, the Ottoman Empire was forced to bring out its forces from the entire Transcaucasus. By June 1919, besides Lori-Pambak, the province of Alexandrapol, the remaining part of the province of Etchmiadzin, Surmalu, Sharur, Nakhijevan, and the Kars region were gradually included within the borders of the Republic of Armenia.

The province of Kars was defacto managed by the Turkish local authority, which by opposing the Armenians and was trying to ensure Turkish prevalence in the region.

The British did not want to irritate the Muslims, and making various excuses, did not want to help the Armenians to take the region of Kars under their control.

On January 9, 1919 an agreement was signed between the Allied Forces, and the Armenian Foreign Affairs Minister, according to which, pending the signing of the final Armenian-Turkish peace agreement, a British military governor was to be appointed in Kars.

Based on this agreement, the British military governor and the Armenian civil authority left for Kars. However, the Turks greeted the Armenians with such hostility and threats, that the British advised the Armenian officials to leave. From April 1919 the policy of the British Command in the Transcaucasus changed in favour of the Armenians.

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Armenia - Paris Peace Conference 1919

Church of The Holy Apostles

With the agreement of the Armenian government and the British High Command, it was decided to seize the city with joint Armenian – British forces. These forces moved forward by train and road and entered Kars on April 24 without meeting any resistance. The Shura (The Turkish local council) tried to oppose it, but the British arrested the members of the Shura and other prominent Turks, and sent them to Malta.

The railroad fell into British hands, so regular transport began. On May 9th the Armenian forces captured Merdenek. On May 13th they entered Olti and Kazaiman without a fight. On May 10th Prime Minister Alexander Khatisyan and General Keith Maitland Davie were welcomed to Kars, with festivities. A national blessing took place in the historic monastery of the Holy Apostles where in his speech Khatisyan announced “Our forces must capture the Alashkert Valley and Basen by May 15th”.

The well-executed seizure of power at Kars reassured the British strategists that the procedure at Nakhijevan could be smooth, thus permitting the withdrawal of the imperial troops within the time limit set by the Commander in Chief. General Keith Maitland Davie first discussed this phase of his assignment with the Armenians and then proceeded to Yerevan to review the military scheme.

The arrangement to extend Armenia’s jurisdiction over Nakhijavan was made public on May 3rd in a declaration witnessed formally by General Davie: “The war is over, the sufferings and torture of the people must come to an end.”

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Brigadier-General Davie’s Shashka

On May 13th Khatisyen and Davie took the governor designate and staff by train onto Sharur, and sped ahead to Nakhijevan, and then southlands all the way to the frontier with Persia.

However, Nakhijevan remained under the control of the republic of Armenia for less than two months. In the spring of 1919 British forces captured Sharur and Nakhijevan and handed authority to the Armenians.

They barely managed to keep them for two months.

The local Tartar population, having Turkish officers as leaders, rebelled and Armenian forces were forced to retreat, with heavy losses. There were no British forces at the time of the rebellion, which was why the Muslims rebelled, attacked the Armenian forces and gained power. The Armenian government’s appeals and urgent requests to keep the small British force in Nakhijevan were in vain.

Armenia was a treasure which had been given to the Armenian nation, but the right to utilise it was given only to the Tartars and Turks, because they were sitting on the fertile soils and all the different mines of Armenia, leaving the Armenians with only rocky mountains, the waters of Sevan and the proud illusion that we Armenians are the owners and rules of Armenia.

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I should mention that while these military and political events were happening the armistice of Erzican was signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Transcaucasian Commissariat, ending armed conflict between the two which was part of Russia’s disengagement from WWI. This led to a great deal of disunity amongst the Armenians, Georgians, and Muslims, who had formed the Transcaucasian Federation.

Under the 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Russia left the war and allowed the Turks to retake the Western Armenian provinces, as well as the provinces of Kars, Batum and Ardahan.

Throughout 1919-1920 there were repeated conflicts between the Armenians, Turks and Azerbaijan. After the Bolshevik advance into Armenia, the Treaty of Alexandropol was superseded by the Treaty of Kars, 1921, signed between Turkey and the Soviet Union. The treaty allowed for Soviet annexation of Adjara in exchange for Turkish control of Kars, Igdir and Ardahan.

I have mentioned this short period of time as I wondered when the shaskha was presented to General Davie. He was welcomed “to Kars with festivities on the 10th of May 1919”. I assume the

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Circassian Men in Uniform wearing Shashka

Circassion Shashka circa 1829

Village of Kubachi in Dagestan

presentation took place then or shortly afterwards, as I gather the British forces had left in two months’ time before the Armenian forces left the city.

A shashka is a sabre, very sharp and used for both slashing and thrusting, it is not carried slung from a waist belt, but rather carried under the left shoulder with the cutting edge up, held by a belt or traps over the other shoulder.

A shashka has no cross guard, although to contradict this, the Russian military had both traditional style shashkas with no guards and also swords designated as shashkas with a knuckle and cross guard, but were mounted to be carried in the traditional shashka manner, slung below the shoulder rather than from a belt. Some traditional shahkas have a large, hooked pommel, wedge shaped or split which was to prevent the sword slipping from the user’s hand. Many shashka scabbards provide for some of the hilt to fit into the scabbard, which meant it was not a waterproof fit. The shashka illustrated here has a tight fit between hilt and scabbard. This style was a favourite with the Cossacks, possible as they were Christian and fought the mainly Muslim troops in the Caucasus. The Cossacks captured many shashkas and Kindjals as spoils of war.

The decoration and embellishment of many shashkas may have been the work of craftsmen from the village of Kubachi in Dagestan, in the northern Caucasus bordering the Caspian Sea on the eastern side and Chechnya to its west. Kubachi has a long history back to the 4th century for the intricate, silver niello and jewellery work and for making armour and chain mail.

I have illustrated another Circassion shashka, c 1829 held in the Royal Armoury in Sweden and illustrated in Arms & Armour of the Caucasus by Kirrill Rivkin. This is just for comparison.

Kars has continued to have a troubled history and is still under Turkish control.

Orhan Pamuk, a Turkish writer and winner of many international prizes, including the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature wrote a short summary of Kars in his novel Snow: “After endless wars, rebellions, massacres and atrocities, the city was occupied, alternately by Armenian and Russian armies; and ever briefly by the British for a short while, when the Russian and Ottoman forcers had left the city following the First World War. Kars was an independent state then in October 1920, the Turkish army entered under the

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Brigadier-General Davie’s Shashka

Armenian Coat of Arms

Mount Ararat

command of Kazim Karabekir, the general whose statue now stood in Station Square. This new generation of Turks made the most of the grand plan initiated by the Tsar’s architects forty three years earlier; the culture the Russians had brought to Kars fitted perfectly with the republic’s westernising project. But when it came to renaming the five Great Russian Avenues, they couldn’t think of enough great men from the city’s history who weren’t soldiers, so they ended up naming after five great pashas”.

I read and was impressed with Snow, several years ago. The story is set in Kars in the 1990s. I was reminded of the novel when researching the shashka presented to Brigadier General Davie. It is a quality piece with fine silver and niello work and the undated inscription to General Davie. The shashka was probably assembled in the late 19th century in Tablisi in Armenia. The mostly erased inscription on the blade can’t be read. I think it is in Cyrillic capital, which looks like it had been a name, almost certainly preceded by a coronet, which has some trace of gold.

The back of the silver presentation sleeve is engraved with a mountain scene. I believe this to be Mt Ararat, a snow-capped and dormant volcano in the extreme east of Turkey. It consists of two volcanic cones. Greater Ararat, the highest peak in Turkey and the Armenian plateau, and Little Ararat. Despite the scholarly consensus the “mountains of Ararat” of the book of Genesis do not refer specifically to Mt Ararat, it has been widely accepted in Christian lore as the resting place of Noah’s ark. Most importantly for this article Mt Ararat is the principal national symbol of Armenia, and is considered a sacred mountain by Armenians. Along with Noah’s ark, it is depicted in the coat of arms of Armenia.

Keith Maitland Davie was a Lieutenant – Colonel (temporary Brigadier- General) from the Gloucestershire Regiment. He as award the D.S.O. and the Order of the Redeemer, 3rd Class, Commander. This is an award conferred on eminent personalities who are not Greek by the Green government.

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Church of The Holy Apostles

Order of the Redeemer 3rd class Commander

Some members may have seen the movie The Water Diviner, with Russell Crowe as the main character trying to find his three sons who went off with the Australian forces and landed at Gallipoli.

Crowe, after the war comes to Turkey, and after visiting Gallipoli ends up in the area where the Armenians had been massacred by the Turks in 1915.

Kars was in this area. Australian POW’s worked in the mines. The movie was criticised for ignoring the Armenians and portraying the Turks as victims in their battles against the Greeks after WWI. I thought this criticism was unfair, I enjoyed the movie.

The grand plan, mentioned by Orhan Pamuk, and initiated by the Tsar’s architects before the war did come to fruition.

“Tsar Alexander came here for the hunting and to meet secretly with his mistress”.

I would like to thank a k Pa an Paul a Duffy for his assistance in writing this article.

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Distinguished Service Order

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References 1. Arms & Armour of Caucasus by Kirrill Rivkin.

2. The expansion of Armenia 1919 – Kars Nakhijevan, Surmalu September 2017.

3. Armenians & Turks – Tatul Hakobyan.

4. Snow by Orhan Pamuk.

5. Wikipedia.

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22/08/2018 9:45:08 AM

KUKRI The kukri or khukuri is a Nepalese knife with an inwardly curved blade, similar to a machete, used as both a tool and as a weapon in Nepal.

Words By George Fennell

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lthough few edged weapons are as easily recognised or as frequently seen as a kukri there is surprisingly little information available on them. Most books confine themselves to the same one paragraph.

There is a wealth of information on Mogul swords, the Persian swords which inspired them and much on the swords of Southern India, but little on the Himalayas in general and Nepal in particular.

My appreciation of kukris began early. The father of a school friend had been a Captain in the Indian Army during the Burma campaign, and brought back a kukri which he subsequently used in the garden. We would sometimes borrow it and play Gurkhas and Japanese sentries with a patch of banana trees. It was fortunate that he had not brought back a Japanese sword, for we would have ruined it completely.

This one was a plain, standard army issue example.

I will never forget how impressed I was with its cutting power, and with its flowing curves and proportions.

As a school boy I recognised it as a rare achievement of design where a naturally beautiful and harmonious shape perfectly fills the practical needs of its owner while surpassing its original purpose to become a work of art as well.

HISTORY Nepal was the most northern territory of the Chola Empire, which began its history in the 5th century AD amongst the Tamil people of Southern India. It ultimately spread east to Java and west into Pakistan, lasting a thousand years.

From the 13th century to the 15th century the Chola came under sustained attack firstly by Timurs and then a host of other Moslem invaders in the wave of the world wide Jihad begun centuries before. The Cholas were ultimately overcome by their enemy’s superior tactics and technology, notably in siege engineering and the deadly combination of mounted archers using superior composite bows.

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Hastening their fall was the inevitable fragmentation and confusion that occurs when great empires crash. So it was that in 1324 the newly selfappointed ruler of Rajistan, King Harisimha invaded Nepal, aggregating what had previously been a random scatter of small city states and isolated valley communities, which his descendants then ruled over for the next four hundred years. This process seems to have been achieved as much by bluff and diplomacy as force of arms.

It was at this point that the Nepalese may have seen the swords that probably were the ancestors of today’s kukri. The Rajputs as former Cholas would have been carrying Chola style swords which would either have been straight or curved, with the cutting edge on the concave side and the weight well forward to the point. These could vary from the size of modern kukris up to a basket hilted cavalry sword called a kirach, up to a metre long.

Very few of these have survived but at the time of their making they mainly appeared on statues in Hindu temples, where sculptures of temple donors were erected with their costumes, jewellery and weapons shown in great detail.

No one knows what the Nepalese carried by way of arms before the Rajput arrival but they would have been Indian or Tibetan, the two nearest neighbours

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who had established arms industries on a scale that allowed them to export. Something like a kukri may already have been in use for a long time.

High quality steel used to be a rare and pricy commodity before the invention of the modern blast furnace, and blades made from it were even more expensive. Only wealthy people could afford to own both tools and weapons. Working with what they could afford, poorer people like the Nepalese opted for something that would function both as a tool and weapon: the kukri.

The other purpose of the kukri was to display status. Much could be told about someone from a glance at the kukri they carried. Plain wooden hilts with a simple cloth or leather sheath were worn by farmers, whereas ivory hilts with metal mounted sheaths were worn by merchants or officials. Kukris thus displayed the wearer’s position and relative position on their society’s totem pole.

In 1768 a perfect storm developed for Nepal. An old King had died without naming a successor and two of his sons began a four year long civil war that left the land in a state of chaos and exhaustion. Meanwhile in the high valleys of Sikkim and Bhutan there had been a series of long savage winters followed by poor summer harvest. The people there were facing starvation. They did what their ancestors had always done, heading south in search of a more forgiving climate and better farmland. There being no other direction in which they could go they were blocked by the Himalayas: they called themselves the Gurkhas.

With the desperate courage that extreme poverty and starvation brings and the state of exhaustion brought about by the civil war in Nepal they found themselves soon in possession of the entire land. However they were not as astute politically as they were militarily, resulting in only two Gurkha kings before the old ruling Rajput dynasty was back on the throne. The Gurkhas became just another of the many peoples the Rajputs ruled over.

One theory that explains the warlike nature of the Nepalese was that, as they remained the only part of the old Chola empire not to be overrun by the Moslems, Nepal became the last sanctuary for refugees. In India an ordinary non warrior caste person’s life would not have changed much once the first shock of the Moslem invasion had passed, except for paying their taxes to someone else.

However members of the warrior caste, the former ruling military and administrative elites would have been well advised to emigrate immediately, for the incoming military and administrative elite would not want them around and would put prices on their heads.

The warrior caste in Nepal would thus have grown out of all proportion to the rest of Nepalese society, increasing the military potential and direction of the country.

In 1788 the Nepalese launched a surprise invasion of Tibet, first destroying the chain of fortress monasteries that defended the mountain

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Kukri

passes. They crossed the Tibetan plateau and laid siege to the capital Lhasa. Tibet was a Chinese protectorate and before Lhasa fell a Chinese army defeated the Nepalese and chased them back home.

The Chinese confiscated a large tract of border land in reparation. They informed the Nepalese that they were now a Chinese protectorate and liable for regular tribute payments to the Peking treasury.

This did not remove Nepal’s territorial ambitions but redirected them. They began to take over the numerous small hill states to their south which caused the British, whose empire in India was rapidly expanding, to set up a series of buffer states to keep the Nepalese out of their newly won territories.

In 1814 the British discovered that Nepalese plans to invade these buffer states were well advanced. This could not go unchallenged so a large British force was dispatched to invade Nepal. It spent the next two years fighting the Nepalese to a stalemate and forcing them agree to stay on their side of the border.

The British were impressed not only with the courage and hardiness of the Nepalese but also with the relaxed blend of Hindu and Buddhist faiths they practised. The Nepalese did not suffer from the rigid caste system that India laboured under, nor any of the deity restrictions common elsewhere. They could be sent anywhere, fed on what was locally available and happily muck in with recruits from anywhere.

They ticked all the right military boxes and were recruited to the East India Company’s Army in India in large numbers.

In 1840 the Nepalese saw their former masters the Chinese suffer a series of costly defeats when their massive army and fleets were soundly defeated by tiny, modern, well equipped forces from England and Europe. They promptly absolved themselves from any former obligations to China and cancelled the tribute payments.

In 1856 the first Indian civil war, also known as the Indian Mutiny, erupted from one end of India to the other. By then many Nepalese were working for the British, earning more money than they had ever done, much of which was being sent home to their families. Nepal had always been a desperately poor, hard scrabble place but the general standard of living was improving at home so they wholeheartedly threw in their lot with the British and offered every assistance against the rebels. Relatively small number of Nepalese troops together with their own or British officers faced down or defeated much larger, undisciplined rebel forces.

After the defeat of the rebels in 1857, the recruiting of Nepalese increased and they were well paid. This recruiting peaked in the two World Wars but trailed

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off by 1960 when Britain began to divest themselves of their empire, although the Brigade of Ghurkas continues today in the British Army. There is a 2000 strong Ghurka Contingent in the Singapore Police Force, and a Ghurka battalion of the British Army in Brunei. There are also six Ghurka regiments in the Indian Army.

The Nepalese are now facing a longer and harder struggle than any they have faced before. Having deposed a corrupt monarchy they are now trying to create a democratic state for themselves, and they may need their kukri to protect that.

COMPONENTS BLADES The main limiting factor facing the kukri maker was the availability of suitable steel. Little was produced locally so good quality material was at a premium: Lord Egerton of Tatton in his handbook refers to some early kukris having bronze blades with a groove along the edge into which was soldered a specially shaped steel edge and point. When this wore out a new one was forged to replace it.

There were three sources of metal available. There was Tibetan iron which they liked but was not always available: Chinese iron which was not always available, but they preferred not to use anyway; and scrap metal from India. This was their first choice, especially pieces of broken or scrapped arms and armour.

There were massive production centres in south and central India turning some of the best steel ever made into weapons and armour.

From time to time battles were fought between armies in hundreds of thousands.

The winner confiscated all the losers’ weapons and armour including reserves stored in their castle armouries: all of it would be sold by tender or auction. Metal loads of thousands of ox carts were reported. Much would probably have been sold on the secondhand arms market but the rest would be sent north in caravans of high quality scrap. The further they went into the hills the more valuable their cargo became.

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BLADES

HILTS

Eventually in the most distant valley a smith with a commission to make a kukri would haggle hard for the last handful of blade fragments or piece of plate armour and have something to smile about on the two day walk back to his home village. This was some of the best steel made, a real advantage in forging something like a kukri, for if it was not made from the best steel it would not last long.

There is little variation in the blade shapes: some have a bit more curvature, some are thicker or thinner.

I have never seen a straight kukri or an example sharpened on each side. Lengths from 300 mm to 350 mm are usual. Smaller ones are found but are dress items and would be too light for practical use.

Occasionally kukris 380 mm to 410 mm are found but these are the upper limit of what is generally seen. The largest blade I can find any reference to is 470 mm.

Like all Hindu blades the preferred finish for kukris was the brightest polish achievable - as close to a mirror finish as possible They did not seem to have valued the patterns in either wootz or mechanically watered steel. Etching to bring out the patterns was more of a Moslem innovation. However my preference is to bring out the pattern where possible and I have done so here.

Highly decorated blades are rare. The cut-out at the base of the blade is a stylised vagina, symbol of the Goddess Durga who organises the speedy reincarnation of souls to whatever new life they have earned in the old one.

A pair of grooves is usually all the decoration found.

Some blades have many grooves or a little simple floral or geometrical design along the back but only a narrow strip and up to the cut-out at the base. The only inscribed blade I ever saw had ‘greetings from Nepal’ scrawled across it in electric pencil. We try not to remind ourselves that such things can happen.

The traditional hilt is short, slightly curved with a flared pommel, no guard and a ring round the middle to give a better grip. They are mainly of wood, horn or bone, occasionally of ivory, but more rarely of rhinoceros horn or metal iron with koftgari work or bronze pewter or silver, often engraved or enamelled.

Usually the hilt is just glued on the tang with a mixture of plant resins, tar and shellac. The next step is to drill a hole right through the hilt, draw out the tang and either bend it over, or thread it and use a nut. Grip scales are often made to be riveted onto the tang.

A strong western influence can be seen in Bowie knife like hilts, with small cross guards.

Below the hilt on either side of the blade are the bolsters which the hilt butts firmly up against so the force of a blow is transferred from the blade to the hilt with a minimum amount of force applied to the tang, its weakest point. Sometimes kukris were fitted with tulwar hilts which gave much more protection for the hand, especially if fitted with a knuckle guard.

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SHEATHS Sheaths are made from two pieces of wood covered in cloth or leather and with the possible addition of a small diamond shaped sheet metal insert. Depending on the wealth of the owner, a locket could be added and other metals used like brass or silver which could be enhanced with engraving or plated in silver or gold. Sometimes these fittings could be large enough to almost completely cover the scabbard. Rarely, one piece of metal outer sheath could be made.

I once saw a kukri that had an all ivory mounting.

Its ivory hilt matched with a sheath made of two pieces of ivory with a silver gilt locket and chape, but they would not have made many of them. I have not seen another like it.

Many kukris have lost their sheaths because of their simple and flimsy constructions. It was apparently better to occasionally buy a new sheath than spend a lot of money up front making one that would last the life of the blade.

Given the Indian influence in Nepal, they may have believed like the Indians that a blade carried in a fancy sheath was not intended for serious use, but for display. When a weapon was drawn in earnest its sheath could be thrown away so as not to encumber its owner. If you won there would be time to find it again - if you lost then a missing sheath would be the last of your worries.

Many of the finest Indian swords were carried in the simplest sheaths, and the same seems to have applied to kukris.

Sadly sometimes one has been taken from its sheath to display on a wall and over time the sheath has been lost. If you want to keep things, keep them together.

IMPLEMENTS Some kukris have no provision for implements, but the majority have two. One is supposed to be a sharpening steel but is so small that you would need all day to sharpen a blade. The other is meant to be a skinning knife but it is too short, blunt and of the wrong shape to be the slightest use. Both appear to

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be purely symbolic. However I once saw a veritable Swiss army knife worth of tools in a Kukri sheath: it had ten separate tools, all with matching turned bone handles.

Dr Gupta Pant refers to a kukri in the New Delhi Museum which has implements shaped like miniature kukris with carved ivory hilts in the form of monster heads.

If a kukri has lost its implements convincing replacements can be made from cutting down old cutlery. Old fish knives are ideal.

Sometimes a carefully wrapped clot of dried animal blood from a sacrifice paid for by the owner as a form of divine protection is found down the back of the sheath.

Kukris are generally worn horizontally pushed through the folds of their sash at the front with the cutting edge either up or down; with western dress they are worn with a belt loop on a belt at their side.

KUKRI BAYONETS In 1863 the Nepalese government sold a large consignment of obsolete arms to a western arms dealer amongst which were some bayonets which had been made to fit the 1820 Brown Bess Musket and were fitted with an East India Company marked spring catch. There is usually an inscription in Nepalese on the back of the heavily cross hatched socket, at 550 mm overall they are impressive but sadly very rare.

There are many fakes which are have been made by cutting the blade from a genuine kukri and the socket from a much later socket bayonet, then clumsily arc welding the two together and chrome plating them.

IRON HILT WITH GOLD KOFTGARI This was probably a presentation piece made in India in the 19th century. The blade has been forged using mechanically watered steel and a plain higher carbon steel for the cutting edge and point but during its forging most of the edge steel ended on one side. The three grooves are neatly cut and it bears the mark of a New Delhi swordsmith. The best kukris were made in India where there were many highly skilled smiths to take on such work; they

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worked on a higher level than the more rough and ready work in Nepal. In 1815 the British began issuing Indian made kukris to recruits for the first time.

I could only guess at who this had been made for - perhaps a parting present for a senior officer, or a prize in a contest. In its original sheath it would have been spectacular with the locket and chape both probably covering most of the sheath. The hilts of the two implements would have received the same gold koftgari as the hilt. I bought this in Sydney so the sheath may still survive, but I don’t think I was born that lucky.

RUSSIAN KUKRI The larger stamp shows a stylised forge and two crossed cannons. It was used by the Czarist era arsenal at Kiev in the Ukraine that produced arms for the rank and file of the Russian army. The smaller stamp says 1313 in Arabic: if it is intended as a date it equals 1895 in our calendar but it may also be a batch or some other form of number.

In the 1880s a process was discovered there to cast blades into moulds using crucible steel, which was a major variation to hammering them out on anvils or grinding them out of specially prepared billets.

This may well be such a cast blade. It has a larger wooden hilt with brass bolsters. Its original sheath has a narrow leather strap that secures the kukri

by wrapping around the hilt then attaching to the same brass button that holds the belt loop in place. A coating of lacquer or some other waterproofing has been used: there is no provision for any implements.

Why the Russians were making kukris, how many they made and for what length of time, I have no idea.

They may simply have been equipping the army, but as they also made things to export perhaps decided to try to sell kukris to the Nepalese.

It may be relevant that in the second half of the 19th century the Russians were planning to add India to their empire. This was part of the so called great game so well described

by Rudyard Kipling in “Kim”.

Fake scientific expeditions were sent out to

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survey possible routes that invading armies could take. These expeditions were top secret and were organised and trained by the Russian Secret Service.

They were dressed to blend in with the locals which meant being similarly armed, hence the need for kukris.

The Sydney based collector I obtained this from had bought it while holidaying in the USA in the 1990s at a place called the Russian Markets in New York. Every week Russian antique dealers would fly over with suitcases full of smaller items to sell. The dealer who sold him the kukri had bought it in St Petersburg but knew nothing of its history.

I had something he had always admired so after he had flown home he showed me the kukri and we decided that they were a fair trade.

HORN AND BRONZE HILT This blade is of finely patterned wootz steel with a Delhi makers mark and a strip of engraving on top of the blade. The hole drilled through the middle of the base of the blade relates to the discovery in the late 19th century that drilling a hole through a piece of metal such as a kukri blade strengthens it. When force is applied to the object it flows around the hole and reduces the chance of bending or breaking.

The making of wootz steel was given up in the 1860s due to the high quality of blast furnace steel, which was also cheap and did not need vast amounts of charcoal. Due to excessive deforestation the British banned its production, but there would have still been a lot of wootz about. After the first Civil War the Indians did not give up wearing swords and daggers but they did give up wearing armour.

This meant that the armour piercing or breaking weapons they use to carry were unsaleable: heads from Tabor axes, maces and Zagnals were like solid little ingots of wootz just waiting to be made into something saleable like a kukri.

After the Civil War this local demand helped keep swordsmiths in work. Most of their efforts went into catering to the growing number of foreign tourists

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brought to their souvenir shops by the rapid spread and speed of the new steamships and railways. They made first rate near identical replicas of Mogul period master pieces: many of the great private and public collections in the west were being built then and they competed with the tourist for what they believed to be Mogul period originals. Many such pieces survive today to grace collections around the globe, with their current custodians convinced they are centuries older than they are.

KUKRI WITHOUT A CUTOUT This is the only kukri blade I have ever seen or heard of that lacks a cutout at the base of the blade. It is very well made and complete in every other detail.

The only explanation I can think of is that it was made for a non-Hindu who did not wish to be associated with any symbols of that religion and had one made without. The wire inlay to the hilt is not a common form of decoration either.

EARLY INDIAN SWORDS Hindu Arms These are examples of the sort of swords that may have developed into the modern kukri. The curvature and balance of these would have been close to a modern kukri. The main difference was in the use of the kanda hilt, where the tang is drawn through the grip and attached to the pommel, with a series of rivets securing the two langettes projecting from the base of the hilt to the blade.

This is a very secure though bulky method of attachment.

This requires highly trained specialists for assembly; the sort of specialists rarely found outside the armouries of the leading states and even more rarely in Nepalese villages. They liked the blades but had their own simpler but effective ideas on hilts and used them instead.

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RHINOCEROUS HORN HILT

SMALL WOODEN HILT

This is a long, narrow possibly early blade made with a sense of economy and a strong boomerang like curve not found in the later, heavier chunky ones. An elongated rhino horn hilt matches the curve of this blade precisely carved with a bank of flowers around the middle. Rhinos live in thick jungle covered valleys and the few that are still there are heavily protected in National Parks.

This kukri with a short blade has signs of folding and welding - probably village work with a much worn wooden hilt and a strong central rim. Its pommel and collar are decorated with a simple striated pattern. It is strongly but simply made - very much a working tool, typical of Nepalese village work.

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References 1. Robert Elgood – Hindu Arms and Ritual, 2004 2. P.S. Rawson – The Indian Sword, 1968 3. Paul Kiesling - Bayonets of the World, 2009 4. Lord Egerton of Tatton – Indian and Oriental Armour, 1968 5. George C Stone – Glossary of Arms and Armour, 1999 6. Ian Heath – Armies of the 19th Century Central Asia and The Himalayan Kingdoms, 1998 7. Nicolo Machiavelli - The Prince, 1512 8. Dale Carnegie - How to Win Friends and Influence People, 1935 9. Dr Gupta Pant - Indian Arms & Armour Volume 2, 1980 10. A Maisey - Arms Cavalcade May, 2013

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Military Issue Folding Knives British and Commonwealth Bladed Knives Words by Ron Cook

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1. A pattern 1905/13 British military issue general purpose single bolster knife with a pointed knife blade, fid and first pattern can opener/piercer having a leaf shaped blade with a central steel post. The side plates of the hilt are formed of cross hatched animal horn riveted to the frame. This knife is fitted with a copper bail or loop for attaching to a lanyard. The ricasso of the blade features the seeing eye or “Eye Witness” trademark of Taylor’s of Sheffield. This pattern of knife was made by some cutlers up to the year 1939 when it was superceded by a new series of smaller Ministry of Defence pattern knives. Widely issued to and used by British and Commonwealth service personnel in WWI. 2. A three bladed single bolster knife by E Blyde & Co. Ltd (of) Sheffield with a sheep’s foot style blade, new pattern can opener and a fid with a copper bail or lanyard loop. The can opener blade is dated 1939.

3. The three bladed bolsterless knife “B4 Any” brand by Watts of Sheffield with a pointed knife blade, fid and new pattern can opening blade. The flat hilt side plates are formed of a cross hatched black material. This knife has a steel bail or loop for attaching to a lanyard. The replacement of copper bails by steel bails from 1940 onwards is obviously a wartime economy measure to conserve all available copper for wartime ammunition manufacture.

4. A two bladed bolsterless knife by George Wostenholme of Sheffield comprising a pointed knife blade and a new pattern can opening blade.

The flat hilt side plates are formed of cross hatched black material. This knife has a steel bail or lanyard loop.

5. A two bladed bolsterless knife by William Henry Wragg of Aurundel St, Sheffield with a sheep’s foot style blade and a new pattern can opening blade dated 1941 and marked with a broad arrow. The rounded hilt side plates are formed of a cross hatched black material with a steel bail or lanyard loop.

6. A single bladed bolsterless knife by Wade & Butcher of Sheffield with a pointed style blade. Also with flat cross hatched side plates of black material and a steel bail or lanyard loop.

7. An Australian WWII all metal version of the standard British WWII Ministry of Defence three bladed service pocket knife with sheep’s foot blade, new pattern can opening blade and fid with a copper bail or lanyard loop. The can opening blade is stamped with a broad arrow and the conjoined initials “WE” for “Whittingsloe of Adelaide.”

8. A very late production (1970) of a British WWII pattern single bolster three bladed military issue knife with a sheep’s foot style blade, can opening blade and fid. With a copper bail or lanyard loop.

The can opening blade is stamped “I.T.C.” over “1970.” Thick heavy flat sided cross hatched black hilt side plates. Serviceman’s number painted on hilt side plates. Possibly Indian Army issue.

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Naval Issue Folding Knives Naval or Nautical Issue Bladed Knives Words by Ron Cook 1.

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1. Circa 1860 Royal Navy Seaman’s single bolster deck knife. The slightly curved heavy sheep’s foot type blade was specially designed to cut hempen rigging ropes cleanly. The rope to be cut was stretched across the flat top of a hardwood block.

The open blade of the knife was placed on the rope at the place where it was to be severed. The back of the blade was then struck with a belaying pin so the blade cut clean through the whole rope.

Then the cut ends of the rope could be whipped to prevent the rope ends unravelling and fraying. The ricasso of the blade of this knife is stamped with the manufacturer’s name “Hunter” (of) “Sheffield”.

The hilt of this knife is comprised of jigged animal bone. A copper bail or loop is attached to the back end of the hilt to enable the knife to be hooked up to the user’s waist belt or attached to a lanyard.

Full name of manufacturer Michael Hunter & Sons (1780 to c., 1910’s).

2. A slightly later British Naval Seaman’s single bolster deck knife again with a sheep’s foot type blade but with the addition of a folding fid (or spike) for punching holes in canvas or leather etc. and for prising apart the twisted strands of hempen cables in order to splice or join two cables together. The ricasso of the blade is stamped with the War Department Examiner’s acceptance stamp “WÏD2” and with the manufacturer’s name “Atkinson Brothers”, over “Sheffield.” The use of the WÏD mark ceased in 1845 (Atkinson Brothers operated 1845 to present day). The surface of the smooth black animal horn side plates show evidence of having been partially eaten by insects.

This knife is also fitted with a copper bail to enable the knife to be hooked up to the user’s waist belt or attached to a lanyard.

3. Another pattern of British Naval Seaman’s single bolster deck knife. In this knife the folding fid or spike is pivoted underneath the front bolster and faces backwards and not forward.

The hilt side plates appear to be jigged bone. The manufacturer’s name is no longer visible. This knife is also fitted with a copper bail or loop to enable the knife to be hooked up to the user’s waist belt or attached to a lanyard.

4. A Royal Canadian Navy Seaman’s issue stainless steel deck knife believed to have been issued to crews of Canadian Naval vessels in World War II. This knife is modelled on the British Pattern 1905/13 general purpose army knife but made entirely of stainless steel. Instead of a spear pointed blade the Canadians have used a sheep’s foot type blade. This knife was made by “M.S. Ltd” the Canadian subsidiary of the U.S. Company W. R. Case & Sons Cutlery Co. The frame of this knife is stamped with the Canadian Government ownership mark and is fitted with a stainless steel bail or loop for attachment of a lanyard. Circa 1940/45.

5. A World War II British Ministry of Defence Naval Seaman’s deck knife issued to British and some Commonwealth Naval and Army Units including the Royal Australian Navy and some specialised 2nd Australian Imperial Force Units. This knife features a heavy sheep’s foot style blade and a fid and screw driver blade, the hilt side plates are cross hatched cast from an allow material known as mazak. A steel bail or loop for attaching to a lanyard is also fitted. In the Royal Australian Navy this pattern deck knife was known as a “Pusser’s Dirk”. A clear panel is left on one of the hilt side plates in which the seaman’s name could be stamped. However most knives found today are not named at all. The illustrated knife is stamped with the maker’s name “Humprey’s Radiant, Sheffield.”

6. A modern stainless steel sailor’s deck knife with a sheep’s foot style blade, fid and can opening blade with a crown seal bottle top removing hook and a screwdriver blade. Together with another wedge shaped hollow centre blade for some unknown usage or purpose. The sides of the body of this knife are stamped “Stainless Steel 100%.” This knife is fitted with a sailor’s short plaited rope securing lanyard.

7. A Yachtsman’s or commercial pattern sailor’s knife with a stout sheep’s foot style blade and a fid enclosed in an aluminium frame with the side plates forming the body of the knife. The purpose of the rectangular slots in the side of the knife body is known but perhaps for drainage. This knife is fitted with a steel bail or loop for securing to a lanyard. The blade is stamped “Compass” whilst the ricasso of the blade is stamped with the maker’s name “H.M. Slater, Sheffield.”

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A Special Pair of Wogdon Duelling Pistols Their simplicity and superb balance never failed to please, comparable with the best of the modern target pistols I used at that time in 50m free pistol competitions.

Words By W T L Taylor

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ome years after I began collecting antique firearms I had the opportunity to buy a flintlock duelling pistol. When I took it into my hands it prompted a very strange feeling: it not only fitted my hand so well it could have been made for it, but it also felt astonishingly familiar.

That startling shock of recognition led to a lifelong interest in English flintlock pistols, especially those made for the duel.

The pistol had been made around 1780 by the famous gun maker of his day, Robert Wogdon. I became fascinated by the duelling code and by Robert Wogdon’s role in developing these deadly

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weapons, and in due course I acquired a few more examples of his work. Their simplicity and superb balance never failed to please, comparable with the best of the modern target pistols I used at that time in 50m free pistol competitions.

Wogdon’s pistols were notable for their performance rather than their looks. Their standard design was severe, and they were usually fitted with blued iron furniture with minimal decorative engraving. Only a few were made with silver furniture and more intricate detailing. However some years ago a cased pair of Wogdon duelling pistols with a number of unusual features came my way.

The first unusual feature was the monogram WB and crest beautifully inlaid in silver wire behind the barrel tangs. Wogdon sometimes placed an oval silver plate there, but this form of intricate wire inlay behind the tang was rare by the time these pistols were made, so it was a special order.

The second feature was the amount of gold the pistols exhibited. In addition to the usual gold lined barrel vents and a gold line across each breech seen on best quality pistols, both the pans and the pan covers had a substantial gold lining. This meant that when the frizzen was closed the fine powder in the pan was totally encased in gold. Gold lined pans are found from time to time on best quality Wogdons, but I had never before seen one with a gold lined pan cover.

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The Wogdon signature was inlaid in gold on the top of the barrels, which is not consistent with his normal practice. He normally used an engraved flowing signature without gold filling, or inserted an oval gold plaque into the top flat with his name in raised Roman capitals.

In another unusual touch, the date 1793 was inlaid in gold at the rear end of each trigger guard. The date was consistent with the pineapple finials to the trigger guards, which Wogdon did not adopt until a few years before he formed the partnership with John Barton in 1794. I believe the inlaid signature and the date were added either as a special order when the pistols were made, or soon after.

His pistols were generally notable for their lack of decoration, which tended to make them look even more ominous, so the amount of gold decoration on these pistols was unusual. However, it was in keeping with his best quality of engraving and gold inlay, so I felt it was likely that all of it was specially ordered from the beginning by someone wanting a very special pair of pistols for some reason directly connected to the date.

The third unusual feature to catch my eye was the lock’s double bolted safety - a sliding safety bolt which engaged not only the internal mechanism of the lock, but also locked down the frizzen. Although this more complex safety is found on some flintlock duelling and officers’ pistols by famous makers like Twigg, Manton and Egg, it is very rarely found on Wogdons and was definitely not a standard feature.

It could not have been added afterwards, so it must have been a special order.

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I then considered the pistols’ half stocks with barrel ribs. The trend from full stocks to half stocks for flintlock duelling pistols began around 1790, although some makers continued with full stocks for another twenty years. At that time duelling barrels became thicker and heavier in order to assist controlled target shooting, which had become very fashionable for young gents. Although real duels were by no means uncommon, many of the duelling pistols surviving today may only have been called upon for target practice at the shooting galleries provided by a number of eminent gun makers for their clients.

Because Wogdon was a rather conservative maker who continued to make full stocked pistols, we must assume that any half stocks we now see on his pistols

were the result of alteration after manufacture by shortening full stocks and adding the barrel ribs, to accord with changing fashions.

When I purchased the pistols the main part of the cocks had been replaced, but the top jaws and the screws were from the original cocks. I decided to have cocks made that mirrored the original ones, and to have them finished and engraved by a master engraver who could match the more intricate engraving required, using another pair of top quality Wogdons as the template. The result was a perfect match, and the original engraved top jaws and screws were then fitted to them.

The pistols are housed in their original Wogdon mahogany case with all the standard features and

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accessories, including the original key. In place of the leather bag flask originally provided in his cased sets (but rarely seen today) there is a late 18th century three compartment flask covered in morocco leather.

The final element of this story concerns the initials WB inlaid in silver wire in the butts, together with a crest showing a horse’s head with three plumes. The issue of most interest to me was whether they could lead me to identify the owner.

The answer was a delightful surprise, illustrating why I regard these pistols as truly special.

After I had purchased the pistols a very knowledgeable Australian collector of Wogdon’s pistols reminded me of the chapter devoted to Robert Wogdon in John Atkinson’s book The British Duelling Pistol.

Atkinson had noted that in February 1792 Robert Wogdon’s daughter Ann married a William Butt,

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who was from a landed family near Buntingford, Hertfordshire. Atkinson also noted that this was where Wogdon chose to retire in 1803. It was unusual for a gunmaker’s daughter to marry into the landed gentry (William Butt was eventually a deputy lieutenant of the county of Hereford), but eighteenth century England was more flexible in such matters than the nineteenth century Victorians.

Wogdon and his wife Jane had moved to a cottage in Buntingford on his retirement, but after his wife’s death he moved to the Butt family’s manor house, Corneybury, where he died in 1813. Wogdon’s will indicated that he owned a number of properties and had investments in public funds, Government bonds and securities, so he died a relatively wealthy man.

That same collector informed me that William Butt’s coat of arms had an identical crest to that on the pistols. I was delighted, for although this is not

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absolute proof that the pistols were his, the WB initials and Butt family crest, combined with so many unusual features added by Robert Wogdon, indicate a reasonable probability that they belonged to him.

The pistols are dated to the year following his marriage to Ann Wogdon. They may have been a special commission connected with the event, given that Ann was Wogdon’s only child. A strong family connection like this might explain why an otherwise conservative gun maker would build pistols with so many extras.

It may never be possible to confirm this intriguing connection, but in any event the pistols’ quality and special a features eat atu u allow them to stand on their own merits.

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References 1. The British Duelling Pistol, John Atkinson, 1978 2. Duelling Pistols, John Atkinson, 1964 3. Early Firearms of Great Britain and Ireland, The Collection of Clay Bedford, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1971 4. Great British Gunmakers 1740-1790, Neal and Back, 1975

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Contributors GEOFF POGSON A Very Fortunate Find In 1968 a lucky find in the Chatswood White Elephant Store spurred me to add collecting to my shooting interests. I began picking up interesting old guns as well as rabbits, foxes and cats. The book was British Pistols and Revolvers, by J. N. George. From this, my collecting became my main focus.

BRAD MANERA A Young Australian Called to War Growing up in my grandparents’ home inspired an interest in objects with stories. The piano and mantelpiece were lined with sepia photos of young men in ill-fitting uniforms, slouch hats and puttees. After 40 years working in museums I’m still intrigued researching great objects and their stories.

PAUL DUFFY Balinese Keris Symbolism I started with British military and sporting arms, as they were available, especially those with colonial markings. But I became fascinated with the art of the gunmaker and the complexity and culture of Islamic and Javanese weapons. Working with metal.

PETER DAHDAH Carbines of The U.S. Cival War I’ve been a collector of carbines and pistols of the American Civil War. This has led me to visit and research those battlefields and the history of the period. I’ve also had an interest in the First World War because of my uncle Tossey Andrews.

JOHN NEWTON John Joseph Wallace Over the past fifty plus years I have spent many rewarding hours researching colonial Australian arms, particularly police and gaols firearms, and the lives of those who used them. I also attend trap shooting competitions where the goal is to use vintage shotguns manufactured in the Victorian era.

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TONY WOOD Silver-Mounted Flintlock Pistols for an Ottoman Dignitary A collector for many years, originally British, Colonial and American arms. I then became fascinated with Islamic arms and armour, especially from India and Persia.

ROGER DUNDAS Brigadier - General Davie’s Shashka One of my great enjoyments in life has been reading the histories of mankind and to have items and weapons from different and important periods and places to hold and to dream about. Just so exotic, so different from our modem western lifestyles. I really admire the weapon designs of lndo-Persian and Turkish swords and daggers and the wonderful decoration of their armour.

GEORGE FENNELL Kukri I became interest in oriental edged weapons when I was tall enough to look into the display cabinet in the old Queensland Museum. I was hooked. I should also mention a judo instructor who was more interested in Japanese swords than judo. And grandparents who were fascinated with non-European art and my mother who was an artist.

RON COOK Military and Naval Folding Bladed Knives Ron’s interest in 19th century British and Colonial issued military long arms started when he was 18, buying a club members long arm. This has now extended to researching British military long arms and their bayonets particularly those issued to Australian Colonies prior to Federation in 1901.

BILL TAYLOR A Special Pair of Wogdon Dueling Pistols Bill Taylor has been collecting antique arms for forty five years in Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide. He specializes in English flintlock pistols, and still enjoys finding something good, hidden under a couple of centuries of grime. He also collects antique Japanese swords and fittings.

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