Arms, Armor and Militaria

.52 Caliber. 22" barrel. SN: 30756. Blued and color casehardened finish, brass furniture, walnut stock with brass patchbox and smooth walnut forend. Single shot straight breech dropping block percussion carbine with Lawrence patent M1859 pattern ladder rear sight, pinned German silver front sight blade in base, sling bar and ring opposite lock and sling swivel in toe of stock. Lock with standard C. Sharps markings and Lawrence primer patent markings. Reverse receiver with standard patent markings. Barrel with two line address forward of the rear sight, no model marking is noted on the barrel. A weak script WAT final inspection cartouche is present on the reverse wrist, below the sling bar. Sub-inspection initials are present in some of the metal parts. Matching serial numbers on the upper tang and on the barrel under the forearm. The gun appears to be a true Model 1859, not a New Model 1859 as there is no model marking on the barrel, the rear face of the breech block is unmarked and it does not have the friction groove found not he New Model 1859 block. The production of Model 1859 Military Carbines was very small, as the New Model 1859 almost immediately replaced the Model 1859. According to the authors of Sharps Firearms - The Percussion Era, only five examples of real Model 1859 Military Sharps Carbines were known to them. These included #30730, only 26 numbers from this gun. It appears that this carbine, #30756 is the sixth such example to survive. A search of the Springfield Research Service serial number books did not find this gun, but it did find three guns very close to this example, including #30733 and #30744, both of which were issued to Company I of the 1st Maryland Cavalry and #30768, which was still in service in 1870 with the 2nd US Cavalry. A very rare Sharps carbine, missing from most collections, even advanced Sharps collections. {ANTIQUE}