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Coming to America
“It was a treasure trove,” Christian Cranmer, owner of International Military Antiques (IMA) in New Jersey, said of the discovery of stockpiled rifles. “Overnight, we became the biggest owner of these types of rifles.”
The US-based group, International Military Antiques (IMA), purchased the rifles for approximately $5 million in 2004, though the deal to acquire the guns was finalized in 2003 in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. How the cache came to end up in Nepal is a matter of speculation, though the country’s one time protectorate status under the Crown was more than likely the source. During the age of the British Empire, Nepal was an independent state under British influence rather than explicitly a colony. We know from documents that, during a public visit by British King George V in 1912, the king was alarmed to find his Nepalese allies still using the Martini-Henry rifle in large numbers.
“The king insisted on supplying them with the more modern Lee-Enfields,” Cranmer said. Presumably, the Martini-Henry rifles were stored after the delivery of the updated guns and forgotten.
The sale (and the price) created controversy in Nepal, with the prevailing attitude appearing to be the government got skinned on the price. Money was needed to equip the Nepalese military with modern weapons to fight Maoist terrorists during a civil war in that country that lasted from 1996-2006 and the government made the decision to sell what many in the country believed to be a priceless collection of guns in 2000.
During a break in the fighting, Cranmer journeyed to Kathmandu to a former 16th century palace of the Nepalese Royal Armory at Lagan Silekhana where the historical firearms were found. In addition to Martini-Henry rifles, the horde included 180 brass cannons, numerous bayonets, musket flints and balls, and kukris, Nepalese curved knives.
All of it totaled 430 tons, 31 tractor-trailer loads. It has been called the greatest single discovery of antique firearms in modern history. The weapons were brought back to Gillette, New Jersey for restoration, where they reside to this day and are available for purchase.
Steve
