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rifles out of a total of 2,970 Model 1853 Sporting Rifles and 10,519 carbines. He does not list how many “Sporting Carbines” like this rare carbine were engraved but does indicate that double set triggers are rare on carbines and that “Quite often the sporting carbines had no sling ring bar or sling swivels at all.”It has a globe front sight, the three-line barrel address, a folding ladder rear sight, standard patent markings on the lock and frame, a folding tang peep sight, adjustable double set triggers, sporting rifle style forearm with pewter end cap, and classic scroll engraving with punched backgrounds on the breech end of the barrel, action, lock, patchbox, and buttplate in the style of Gustave Young and other German trained engravers. Several components have “E” markings, and matching serial numbers are on the barrel, forearm, upper tang (partially engraved over), and patchbox.
LOT 1047
Very Scarce Factory Panel Scene Engraved Sharps Model 1853 Slant Breech Sporting Rifle - Serial no. 11043, 44 cal., 26 inch round bbl., brown/casehardened finish, walnut stock. This Sharps Model 1853 sporting rifle was factory engraved at the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Co. in Hartford, Connecticut, and is chambered in 60 bore (.44 caliber), with a 26 inch round barrel, double triggers, globe and ladder sights, and factory drilled and tapped for a tang peep sight (absent). The distinctive Hartford factory Germanic scroll engraving, consisting of tight circular scrollwork on a punch-dot background, covers the top of the barrel between the rear sight and receiver, the receiver, lock plate, hammer, upper and lower tang, lever, patch box and buttplate tang. This style engraving is also found on factory engraved Colt revolvers manufactured in the mid-1850s. The forearm has a pewter tip. The rifle has the distinctive “slant breech” receiver with Lawrence pellet primer. The stock and forearm are straight grain American walnut with an iron patch box and buttplate. The barrel is blued and the receiver, lock plate, patch box, buttplate and lever are color casehardened. The top of the barrel is roll-stamped “SHARP’S RIFLE/MANUFG.CO./HARTFORD CONN” in three lines. The lock plate is roll-stamped “SHARPS/PATENT/1852” in three lines in a panel surrounded by scrollwork. A scene of a hunting dog taking down a stag is engraved on the patchbox, a stag is engraved on the left of the receiver and a hunter on the right. “SHARPS/PATENT/1848” roll-stamped on the upper receiver tang in a panel surrounded by scrollwork ahead of the serial number “11043”. The matching serial number is located on the underside of the barrel, rear flat of the forearm, underside of the patchbox door and underside of the buttplate.
LOT 1048
Incredibly Scarce Documented “Fine Engraved” Sharps Model 1853 Slant Breech Percussion Sporting Carbine with Factory Letter - Serial no. 10711, 36 cal., 21 3/4 inch round bbl., brown/ casehardened finish, walnut stock. The Sharps Model 1853 is one of the most iconic firearms of the often violent antebellum era and was famously used by John Brown and his abolitionist allies in Bleeding Kansas and his raid on Harpers Ferry. Early Sharps rifles like this factory “extra fine engraved” sporting rifle helped establish breech loading firearms in the U.S. and led to Sharps rifles and carbines being among the most significant firearms of the Civil War era and the settlement of the West after the war. The included factory letter from R.L. Moore Jr. lists this gun as a carbine with a 22 inch round barrel in .36 caliber (90 bore) and noted as “finely engraved.” On page 49 of “Sharps Firearms,” Sharps expert Frank Sellers lists eight 90 bore “Round, Fine Engraved”