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P1853 Bayonet


ffuries
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I did a search and didn't turn up any definitive answers. So I'm somewhat confused. I've always bought the item and not the story.

 

Yesterday I recieved a P1853 bayonet for my Afghanistan bring-back P1853 Snider-Enfield dated 1863, (Not a Khyber Pass copy). 

 

After I cleaned it up a bit and oiled it, I was able to make out W A with a B 54 beneath that. My limited internet search turned up a possible match to a R & W A or Richard & William Aston made bayonet, and of course the B 54 being the Birmingham Inspection mark. 

 

There is no Crown or Broad Arrow stamps anywhere on this bayonet. I've read somewhere this was indicative of a Commercially sold bayonet, other sites say sold to the US during the American Civil War, other sites refer to equipment sent to British Colonial countries.

 

There is so much contradiction between sites, it becomes confusing, and you don't know who to believe. So what say our resident bayonet experts?

 

Provided to the US for use during the American Civil War?

Provided to one of Britain's Colonial countries, and doesn't belong on here?

Commercially sold (Whatever is meant by that), and doesn't belong on here?

 

 

 

20200928_175903.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

Looks like you are on the right track. R.W. Aston were one of the first pattern 1853 Board of Ordinance bayonet contractors on October 6, 1853. These makers were allowed to put their names on the ricasso. When the Birmingham firms made weapons for American orders they lack the crown on the mark. The B is the Birmingham view mark, the 54 is the inspectors number, the B verified the quality of the bayonet for non-British Government orders, of course these could have been sent to either the Union or Confederacy.

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On 10/16/2020 at 7:59 PM, Brad1 said:

Looks like you are on the right track. R.W. Aston were one of the first pattern 1853 Board of Ordinance bayonet contractors on October 6, 1853. These makers were allowed to put their names on the ricasso. When the Birmingham firms made weapons for American orders they lack the crown on the mark. The B is the Birmingham view mark, the 54 is the inspectors number, the B verified the quality of the bayonet for non-British Government orders, of course these could have been sent to either the Union or Confederacy.

 

Thank you for the information and your insight, confirms and adds more to what little I thought I knew, and you explained it much better than I could have.

 

I've learned a few things with my collecting of weapons.....

 

1) I know enough to know that l don't know enough!

2) The more I learn, the more I learn I need to learn more!

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