Enfield Barrel Bands

[Pvt_M]

Greetings all,

Recently I was in Thailand, and had the opportunity to see the Royal Palace complex in Bangkok. They had a royal arms collection, which, of course, I gravitated to. Inside I found some Enfield muskets with very interesting barrel bands. They looked an awful lot like the ones that come stock on your armisport and euroarms, but not like the ones we get on our defarbs. They didn't allow photos in there, and the lockplate was turned so that I could not see the year, but to me it looked exactly like the 1853 pattern. I also could not find anybody that worked there that spoke english. Just food for thought.

[Curt Schmidt]

Hallo!

There were four "models" of the P1853, with minor variations between the later Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield (RSAF), London Armoury, London commercial firms, and the older Birmingham Small Arms Trade (BSAT).

Plus, there are "local" "colonial" made examples.

It sounds to me like you viewed P1853 4th Model "Baddeley" bands on 4th Models that escaped being cut down for British Snyder breech-loading conversions and were distributed to the colonies or sold off directly.

4th Model bands are not correct for the BSAT, LA CO. and London 3rd Models used in the ACW.

Curt

[Pvt_M]

Thanks for the info Curt.