Product Details
TOWER ARMOURIES, LONDON
A RARE .650 PERCUSSION SERVICE CARBINE, MODEL 'LAND TRANSPORT CARBINE', no visible serial number,
dated for 1855, with 26in. barrel (corroded externally), block fore-sight, borderline engraved lock signed 'TOWER' together with the date (corroded), walnut three-quarter stock (some worm damage), brass furniture, the short tang of the heel-plate marked 'LTC' over '81' (attempts at defacing), the barrel retained via pins, iron swivels, 'Lovells' bayonet catch and bulbous ended iron ramrod (corroded)
Other Notes: The Land Transport carbine was an emergency measure of the Crimean War (1854-1856). Although the inadequacies of the Commissariat in Bulgaria had prompted Lord Raglan to request the formation of a Land Transport Corps as early as June 1854, nothing was done until the last days of the Aberdeen administration in January 1855, when the extreme difficulty of transporting supplies from Balaklava to Sevastopol became a scandal. The Corps, part of the regular army, eventually numbered nearly 9,000 men. To enable the supply columns to protect themselves against Cossack marauders, the smoothbore Pattern 1840 Constabulary Carbine fitted with the Lovell Pattern 1842 Percussion Lock was supplied as an emergency issue firearm. Designated the Land Transport Corps Carbine, it fired a spherical ball contained with powder in a paper cartridge. It was issued with the standard Constabulary Pattern triangular bayonet, which was secured with the Lovell bayonet catch in the same way as the Pattern 1842 Musket bayonet.
As with this example, most of the carbines are dated 1855, the year in which the Land Transport Corps was established. This one is stamped with the Board of Ordnance mark on the wooden butt and 'LTC/ ?/ 81' on the brass butt plate, indicating the unit, the company letter and rack number.
Land Transport Carbines are often in poor condition on the rare occasions when they turn up as the majority ended their days doing service in the colonies.
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Estimate £350-550 € 388-610