What the devil is this thing?

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Damn but I hate checking this thread when away from home - the questions raised!

What I can address till then:

#91 HSO I'm certain that they all go together and in this order. They will not screw together successfully in any other order due to the hand hewn threads. Once assembled, the numbering makes sense on the last segment as some of the numbers are read radially and ascendingly as a coil.

#92 RC I don't think my photos do it justice but the screws being hand made look very period to me. For our parts, given what my wife and I do, we make and retain a great deal of our money identifying original, vintage repo (mostly Victorian), post vintage and modern copies of items so we're generally cool with the hardware but now you got me wanting to re-visit the issue when it's in hand again. Good catch.

#95 ODDJOB Boy doesn't that sum it up. I guess there's a good chance that it answers what's rattling in the one section as well. Now I'll press my gal that she didn't save the other component to give me for Christmas as would be like her.

#100 - Geeze, really!?! 100?.. OILYPABLO My wife has an estate sale company with her partner and drug this home after turning down and then exceeding the lowball offer. Thought I'd get a kick out of it. She'd have never guessed. Jury's still out as to whether this is period or vintage repo. I'll be pulling hardware pursuant to RC's observation on the screws. Dead giveaways often - if not later repairs.

Still, a fella's gotta wonder... Walking stick - how does that work?:banghead:
 
Apparently, it was like an 1800's McGivers tool kit / SAK / Leatherman Tool / PDA / Rolex for the foot traveler in India?

Still, it would seem pretty heavy to carry around for a walking stick.
But heavy would be good if you had to crack a mad sacred cow over the head to give it an attitude adjustment.

On the other hand, jointed in so many places would make it more likely to break if you did hit something really hard with it.

And why the nonagon barrel /staff flats?
Symbolic of something, or?

And there must have been very few of them made, as internet searches using every search word & phrase I can think of have so far turned up nothing else even remotely like it.

Maybe there where only two?
The one in the London museum, and yours?

So many questions still remain unanswered that may not ever be!

BTW: I do not see any way it could be a modern repro.
Why would anyone reproduce something like that if no one even knows what it is?
Plus, the cost of making it today, even in India, would far exceed what anyone would be willing to pay.

rc
 
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It looks like a toy for a nobleman with more money than sense. India had its share of idle rich. Definitely not practical but was used more like a modern BBQ gun --- "Lookey here what I got boys, and pass that tandoori chicken!"
 
rcmodel said:
Apparently, it was like an 1800's McGivers tool kit / SAK / Leatherman Tool / PDA / Rolex for the foot traveler in India?

Still, it would seem pretty heavy to carry around for a walking stick.
But heavy would be good if you had to crack a mad sacred cow over the head to give it an attitude adjustment.

On the other hand, jointed in so many places would make it more likely to break if you did hit something really hard with it.
Click to expand...

Yup - you are not going to be wielding this thing with a heavy hand but then, were you able to, you'd be held in poor stead for whackin' the beeves.

rcmodel said:
And why the nonagon barrel /staff flats?
Symbolic of something, or?
Click to expand...

The number nine has myriad special/significant meanings and holdings to the Hindu People.

rcmodel said:
And there must have been very few of them made, as internet searches using every search word & phrase I can think of have so far turned up nothing else even remotely like it.

Maybe there where only two?
The one in the London museum, and yours?

So many questions still remain unanswered that may not ever be!

BTW: I do not see any way it could be a modern repro.
Why would anyone reproduce something like that if no one even knows what it is?
Plus, the cost of making it today, even in India, would far exceed what anyone would be willing to pay.
Click to expand...

One of mine and Sarah's clues to repo - is there / was there ever a market? This one? So far, seems not.
 
It looks like a toy for a nobleman
Click to expand...

Thats exactly what I was thinking too.

No way the average working /struggling to survive man in 1800's India could afford to buy one!

I believe you would have had to be rich, and well connected to an established gun maker to lay hands on one!

rc
 
CWL said:
It looks like a toy for a nobleman with more money than sense. India had its share of idle rich. Definitely not practical but was used more like a modern BBQ gun --- "Lookey here what I got boys, and pass that tandoori chicken!"
Click to expand...
Gotta be, huh? Wholly impractical but certainly an attention getter I'm sure. I too am thinking "Sinak Kabab" gun!:D
 
Well, it does fit the description and picture shown for an odd walking stick, not what we would think of as a walking stick, but then again not every one thinks as we do. Why the Hindu calendar? don't know, but I guess the flint lock would be good for cobras and the occasional bandit { which I understand the were quite a few of both types of snakes in those areas }. One thing I'm not sure of, which end is the ground end . At one time you could buy a .410 gauge cane or walking stick here in the U.S., not so much for cobras but the other type of scum. However those types didn't have gold inlay , calendars and were not made of steel. :what:
 
One thing I'm not sure of, which end is the ground end .
Click to expand...

Go back and read the descriptions. At one end (the hand end) there should be a knob which seems to be missing from ApacheTodds piece. But there is a bit of threaded section to which a knob (or another section with a knob) could be attached. The pistol end is the ground end, described as having a sliding sleeve trigger which is missing from Todds example as well.

And there is really no reason to assume the device was ever used as a support while walking. In the 18th and 19th centuries, walking sticks were probably carried for use as personal defense weapons more than as ambulatory aids.
 
Very, very interesting, ApacheCoTodd; working along OddJob's lead, I looked in "Cane Curiousa", by Catherine Dike, and she shows part of a combination walking-stick/sundial made in Nepal that looks something like this. The holes at one end are where the "gnomon" (indicator stick) would be placed, and that may be what's rattling around inside. To use, the stick would be placed in the hole corresponding to the month, then holding the cane vertically would cause the shadow of the gnomon to show the time of day.
 
Excellent lead SDC.

You and ODDJOB may have locked this up.

I'm still trying to get the jangly thing out but the notion that the holes are not for venting but rather mounting positions to utilize a sun-dial has got me going.

While My-Gal-Sal says that she does not recall the end bits as far as specifically grabbing them for her "findings" - she does admit that it's possible they're lying about in a box. Here's hoping.
 
Hey Odd Job good on ya for checking with the Royal Armories. If anyone would know, I imagine it's those guys. I spent an entire blissful day there about 5 years ago. I love that place. My friends said I " had a bloody gungasm". I have been informed they'll just drop me off next time and pick me up at closing time!
 
I certainly hope you mean the domesticated Asian water buffalo, and not his African sort-of cousin.

I'm only just barely comfortable with being a mere 200- degrees of longitude from any experimentation, steampunk or otherwise, on prodding Cape Buffs, thank you very much.
 
Yes, I wouldn't expect to find any African Cape Buffalo in India.

On the other hand, the 'domesticated' Asian version has a mean streak a mile wide on occasion too.
They are not all 'domesticated' when found in the wild.

rc
 
This has been the most interesting firearm post and thread I've seen here in years.

Thanks for sharing!
 
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