Lot 312
Western Front Battlefield Relic Lot Including Lebel Rifle
Opening: $200
Western Front Battlefield Relic Lot Including Lebel Rifle
Lot includes two 12" x 16" collector display frames and one 8.5" x 12" frame, filled with shell fragments, bits of corrugated sheet metal from trench walls, the base of a minenwerfer shell, recovered Bavarian and Prussian spike helmet wappen, barbed wire, etc., much (but not all) of it labeled as to where it was recovered. Also includes a battlefield relic Imperial German S.98/05 bayonet, and features a battlefield relic French Lebel rifle which has been dramatically twisted, likely by the effect of a shellburst. The force from artillery explosions can be much like a tornado, turning the once-formidable implements of war into mute testimonials to the effect of being downrange amid the sudden and violent arrival of high explosives. In this case, we can see that the bolt was open at the time that the shell arrived. It is interesting to think that as that last fired cartridge was being ejected, a shell landed that not only bent the barrel in multiple directions, but also the back end of the bolt!
Though from a logical, practical perspective this rifle is clearly now lethal only to someone not up-to-date on their tetanus shots.. it is in the eyes of the law still a modern rifle, and must transfer via an FFL as a -nsn- (no serial number) post-1898 firearm.
$400 - $600