United States. The Sharps Rifle - Its History, Development and Operation

Hardcover, orangy-yellow cloth cover, with dust jacket, the rifle graphic on the front cover and the text on the spine in black and white inks, entitled "The Sharps Rifle - Its History, Development and Operation", by Winston Oliver Smith, copyrighted by the author in 1943, originally published by William Morrow & Company of New York in 1943, this book is the Third Printing in December 1965, printed in the United States. As stated on the dust jacket: "A comprehensive study of the first successful breech-loading rifle - one of America's outstanding firearms, an important weapon in the Civil War, and the favorite of the hunters on the Great Plains. There is an increasing interest today on the part of shooters, historians, and collectors in the firearms of the nineteenth century, particularly in the percussion arms of the pre-Civil War period. One of the most important - if not the most important - of these firearms was the Sharps rifle, the first successful breech-loading rifle, invented in 1848 by Christian Sharps. Going to original sources and discovering much material hitherto unpublished, the author has written the complete story of the Sharps rifle: its background, development, its use as a military weapon, the development of the gun during its manufacture, and its operation. There is an account of its manufacture by the various companies and the contribution made by each, including the changes and inventions of Richard S. Lawrence of the Robbins and Lawrence Company, who, more than anyone else - save Christian Sharps himself - was responsible for this outstanding firearm. Of importance to collectors today are the discussion and charts on the identification of models, not only of percussion nut metallic cartridge rifles. And to the shooter who is interested in firing the old percussion rifles, there is considerable material on care, operation, maintenance, the manufacturers of cartridges, and a table of loads". It begins with a Preface by the author, followed by a Table of Contents and a List of Illustrations. The book is divided into seven chapters: 1 - The Sharps Rifles; 2 - The Sharps in Service; 3 - The Manufacturers of the Sharps; 4 - Development of the Sharps Rifle; 5 - Identification of Models; 6 - Sharps Ammunition and Its Manufacture; 7 - Operation and Maintenance. It concludes with nine Appendices, a three page Bibliography, a one page Acknowledgment and a six page Index. The book contains 154 pages composed of detailed text and is illustrated with thirty-five plates of line drawings and photographs, printed in black ink, on a coated white paper stock, measuring 160 mm (w) x 242 mm (h) x 14 mm (d). It exhibits light repair on a few tears on the dust jacket, however, the pages within remain unaffected. A terrific resource book for collectors and researchers of the origins and history of the Sharps Rifle. Near extremely fine.

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