Product Details
ATKINSON & NEEDHAM, BIRMINGHAM
A RARE .450 (NEEDHAM) REPEATING LEVER-ACTION RIFLE, MODEL '1881 PATENT', serial no. 5,
built to Atkinson & Needham's patent 716 of 19th February 1881 and possibly prototypical, with in the white round 24in. barrel, block and blade fore-sight, small ladder rear-sight, slab-sided receiver frame engraved 'ATKINSON & NEEDHAM PATENT No5', twin-chambered rotating breech operated via an under-lever, plain walnut butt-stock, full-length under-barrel magazine in imitation of a second barrel and smooth walnut side-fillets forming the fore-end, majority of buttstock expertly replaced.
Other Notes: This short lived invention was the brainchild of both Atkinson and Needham who took out patents in 1881. The twin chambered breech-block would turn through 90 degrees on each operation of the lever, allowing either the under-barrel magazine to be accessed or introducing a fresh cartridge to the top barrel. The cartridges themselves fed in from the front a-la Burnside and ejection was also performed by pulling the trigger at the half cycle position
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Estimate £1,500-2,000
Sold as an exempt item under Section 58 (2) of the 1968 Firearms Act, to be held as a curiosity or ornament