AN INTRODUCTION TO EAST INDIA COMPANY SMALLARMS c1775–1851

by D.F. Harding

Published 1st December 2013

A brand new book, based on David Harding's award-winning four-volume work Smallarms of the East India Company 1600-1856, (Foresight Books 1997-99). 

An Introduction to East India Company Smallarms c1775–1851 introduces the two million smallarms of many different designs which the once mighty East India Company procured for its forces. It describes and illustrates those patterns of smallarms and bayonets that collectors are likely to see, made in the period c1775 to 1851, and yet is far more than a collectors’ guide. 

Two introductory chapters outline how the Company procured its smallarms from the English gun trade, and how the many patterns are classified. The next seven chapters cover the main types of weapon thematically: muskets, fusils, rifles, carbines, pistols, musketoons and blunderbusses, and finally wallpieces. Then comes a chapter on the smallarms bought privately by the Company’s irregular cavalry regiments, and another on the India Ship Store arms used by East Indiaman ships. In these nine key chapters each pattern of weapon is covered on two facing pages, with a description and discussion on the left and numerous large monochrome photos on the right. Most of the photos are new and as many as possible show previously unpublished specimens.

Special appendices allow collectors to interpret markings of all kinds, also to identify the different patterns of locks and bayonets and find coverage of the related patterns of weapon elsewhere in the book. Finally there is an outline of how muzzle-loading smallarms were loaded and fired in Britain’s main armies, with three key graphs on how muskets and rifles compared in accuracy and rates of fire.

This book summarises the heart of David Harding’s earlier comprehensive four-volume work, the highly acclaimed Smallarms of the East India Company 1600–1856 (Foresight Books 1997–99), where ten thousand source notes, extensive bibliographies and careful but very readable analysis establish the accuracy of what the author writes in this shorter work.

For further details please see the publisher's website at www.foresightbooks.com.

Large A4 format, HARDBACK ONLY AVAILABLE, 270 pages, 507 black-and-white photos, 27 line drawings, 3 graphs.

Postage: UK mainland, £7.75p (by Small Parcel 2nd Class Signed-for service). To USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, £13.75p (by economy service). To Belgium, France, Germany and Holland, £11.25p (by economy service).

In line with Foresight Books policy, this book will not be 'remaindered' (sold off cheaply). The price will remain the same or, if necessary on reprinting, increase. This is our policy, to protect your investment, the author's and ours.