Arms, Armor and Militaria

.34 caliber. 22" octagon to round barrel. SN: 24. Bright finish, brass furniture, German silver decorations, walnut stock with raised cheek rest and smooth semi-Schnabel forend. Single shot breechloading tip down barrel smoothbore spring piston air rifle. Top barrel flat marked G.V. BRECHT ST. LOUIS 24. Round metal receiver serves as an air reservoir that stores air compressed by the 10" long brass lever under the action that doubles as a triggerguard. A push release on the reverse of the forend allows the barrel to be unlocked and tilted down for loading. The rifle is mounted with an elevation adjustable brass leaf rear sight which is dovetailed into the barrel and there is also a dovetailed brass blade front sight. The gun is decorated with two German silver squirrels on the obverse, a German silver star on the cheek rest and a dog on the reverse forend. Brass oval escutcheons and decorations are also present, along with a decorative sheet brass plate around the breech tang and a brass buttplate.

Gustavus von Brecht (1821-1891) was born on December 20 in the state of Wurttemburg (Germany) and emigrated to the United States in 1848 at the age of 26. He arrived in New Orleans, LA on the Hercules, sailing from Antwerp, on February 21. He was listed on the passenger manifest as machinist and was accompanied by a 6 year old boy named Oscar, who appears to have have been his younger brother. The 1850 Census showed him living in St Charles, MO working as a gunsmith and doing miscellaneous repair services living in the home of 69 year old August Brecht, likely his father who had apparently preceded Gustavus in emigrating. By 1853 Brecht was living in St. Louis and on October 31 of that year he married Maria Valerius.

Over the next three plus decades Brecht would build a successful manufacturing business in St. Louis producing butcher's tools, wagon maker's tools, velocipedes (early bicycles) and apparently at least a few air guns. Brecht received at least couple of patents during his time in business, most notably for an adjustable hub boring machine for wheel hubs. He may have received a patent for a sausage stuffing machine, as examples of his sausage stuffers are known with markings suggesting they were patented by him. His air guns are extremely rare and if the handful of known extant examples are any indication it is unlikely that he produced more than a few dozen. #3 is known and is in the collection of the Cody Firearms Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center for the West and #5 and #19 were cataloged in private collections by the late DeWitt R Pourie while he was working on his book about St. Louis gunmakers and allied tradesmen.

Further research has not uncovered any other surviving examples, although they may exist. The notes regarding the gun at Cody indicate that production of these was circa 1865-1875. Air guns have a rich history in the St. Louis area due to the fact that Lewis & Clark's Corps of Discovery traveled with air rifles as part of their equipment in 1803. This is an extremely rare air gun, worthy of the most advanced collection of St. Louis based arms or American air guns.