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56
LOT 48
Extremely Rare, Documented, Historically
Significant, Exhibition Grade Panel Scene
Engraved, Gold Plated, and Presentation
Inscribed Providence Tool Co. Peabody-Martini
Single Shot Rifle-Musket with Bayonet - NSN,
45 cal., 33 1/4 inch round bbl., gold finish, deluxe
checkered walnut stock. The Providence Tool Co.
manufactured the Peabody-Martini rifles c. 1873-1882
in a variety of configurations, including over 600,000
military rifles or rifle-muskets for the Ottoman Empire,
their largest customer. This extraordinary rifle features
a round barrel with a “barley corn” front sight that also
serves as the lug for the included nickeled socket bayonet, notch
and folding ladder rear sight with Eastern Arabic numerals, “MAN.
F.D. BY THE PROVIDENCE TOOL CO. PROV. R.I. U.S.A.” inscribed
on top of the barrel towards the breech, and panels of scroll
engraving at the breech end. The action has the tughra of Ottoman
Sultan Abdulaziz at the center of the right side, a zebra panel
scene on the right rear, a moose panel scene on the right front,
scrollwork, a running deer scene on the front left, lion attacking a
horse at the left center, and a running stag at the left rear. Aside
from the rear sight and some additional small components such
as the trigger, the finish throughout the metal is gold. The musket
length forearm has multi-point checkering in the grasping section
as does the wrist of the highly figured buttstock. The buttplate has
coarse checkering.
This rifle is pictured in Tom Rowe’s “Engraved & Interesting
Peabody Martinis” and noted as “obviously made for presentation
to the Turks when they were buying Peabody rifles for a military
contract.” Like a previous gold and silver plated and C.F. Ulrich
signed master engraved Peabody-Martini rifle listed in our
December 2019 Premier, this rifle was almost certainly engraved
by Conrad F. Ulrich (1844-1925), one of the great master firearms
engravers of the late 19th century and early 20th century. It may
have been designed for display at the Centennial International
Exposition in Philadelphia from May to November 1876 prior to an
intended presentation to Sultan Abdulaziz or one of his ministers
to curry favor with the Ottoman leaders. The sultan had traveled
to view the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1867. The Ottoman
Empire (Turkey) was represented by 1,500 exhibitors displaying the
empire’s famous carpets, tents, tobacco, furniture, coffee, jewelry,
and other goods for display within the exhibition as well as a cafe
and bazaars built nearby to supply visitors with the “Orientalist”
goods then in vogue in the U.S. and Europe.
In the 1870s, militaries around the world were modernizing
and adopting breech-loading rifles leading to arms races and
competition between various manufacturers. The Providence Tool
Company seized the opportunity to make a fortune arming the
Ottoman Empire and received contracts for 600,000 Peabody-
Martini rifles, the largest foreign military contract for an American
arms manufacturer to the that point. Sultan Abdulaziz (1830-1876)
was a key figure in the adoption of the Peabody-Martini rifle by
the Ottoman Empire (aka Turkey). The orders are covered in depth
in “The Turkish Connection: The Saga of the Peabody-Martini Rifle”
by William O. Achtermeier in the March/April 1979 issue of “Man
At Arms”. In 1872, the original Providence Tool Co. Peabody design
had competed in the Ottoman rifle trials. However, the sultan came
out in favor of the British Peabody-Martini-Henry design after
receiving rifles from the Khedive Ismail Pasha of Egypt effectively
ending consideration of the Peabody as well as other models such
as the Remington Rolling Block. The sultan’s government offered
contracts for British pattern rifles to American arms makers.
As pictured and
described in the
book Engraved &
Interesting Peabody
Martinis by Rowe