Product Details
AN EXCEPTIONALLY RARE .50-56 (SPENCER RIMFIRE) BALL & LAMSON LEVER-ACTION REPEATING RIFLE, no visible serial number,
circa 1865, 20 1/2in. barrel with seven round under barrel tubular magazine, action marked on left 'E.G. LAMSON & CO. WINDSOR VT./ U.S./ BALL'S PATENTS / JUNE 23, 1863 / MAR. 15, 1864', underlever with integral trigger-guard, external hammer, two-piece iron mounted full walnut stock, the full length fore-end containing the tubular magazine, the left side of the wrist with inspecting officer's cartouche, good sharp condition with traces of original fading finish
Provenance:
One of the rarest of all early American lever action repeaters made for military service, of which very few examples are known in UK,
The mechanism was patented by Albert Ball of Worcester, Mass. and manufactured by E. G. Lamson and Company who had taken over the old Robbins & Lawrence factory. Lamson submitted the Ball carbine to U.S. Ordnance trials in the summer of 1865 resulting in an order for 1000 to be delivered by January 1865. The trials carbines were in .44 Henry calibre and the initial order was for this calibre, the U.S. military decided to standardise their calibre to the .50-56 Spencer cartridge. The manufacture of the Ball carbines was well advanced and had to be rebuilt in the required calibre causing a delay thereby arriving too late for Civil War issue. They were consigned to store where they remained until 1901 when the Government decided to dispose of the large quantity of Civil War arms still in store. These Ball carbines were sold off at 12 cents each. In 1868 a number of Ball carbines were set to the UK for the British War Department's Repeating Arms Trials, also tested was the Spencer, Henry, and Winchester 1866, the Ball & Lamson performed credibly well
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Estimate £1,500-1,700
Sold as an exempt item under Section 58 (2) of the 1968 Firearms Act, to be held as a curiosity or ornament