Iron mortar on Ebay, ???????

[cannonmn]

1.  I wonder what antique "weapons" Ebay allows and which they reject?  I thought they didn't allow any but this particular seller puts one up every week and it stays there.  I wonder if it is because they say they are in the US and the weapon isn't?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150165022998&ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:US:1123

2.  Wonder how they get away with posting copyrighted material like this article on the particular mortar, from the Artilleryman?

http://bronzecannon.com/Britishmortar.htm

3.  I did some analysis on the mortar shown in the article and I don't think it is authentic.  There's no British iron mortar of that shape, nor anything close, in the British manuals.  This iron mortar, which they call a 24 pounder, has 2" trunnions.  The bronze 24's we have here, from two different coutries, have 2 3/4 inch trunnions.  Since cast iron has to be thicker than bronze for the same application, I'd say there's something wrong.  Also the 19th C. mortars in this size that I've seen, iron or bronze, always have either a cylindrical or a Gomer chamber, not "hemispherical" as the article shows for the Ebay piece.  In addition, the barrel wall thickness appears to be less than that of bronze coehorns of that era.  The piece does look like it has some age in the article photos, but it could be a well-weathered 20th C. replica.  At best it could be some kind of line-thrower, but it does not have enough meat on it to be a typical tactical Coehorn-type mortar, at least in my opinion.

4.  Any thoughts?

[dominick]

Cannonmn,   I posted a "full scale" 4.62" replica coehorn mortar barrel on ebay for sale and it was removed.  They stated that it violated their weapons policy because it was full scale and can fire original artillery shells.  whatever...   Dom

[cannonmn]

Hmmm, I just went back to look at the Ebay item again and it was gone, so I guess those "little old lady" armchair detectives who report that stuff got that one too.

Anyway the Artilleryman article about it is still available if anyone wants to look, and I still think the mortar isn't "right" for a tactical coehorn-type mortar:

http://bronzecannon.com/Britishmortar.htm

[copdoc]

Cannonmn, I wondered the same thing when I read it in the Artilleryman.  Small trunnions, trunnion location, thin wall, hemi powder chamber all workable but unusual.  I am not familiar with all the Brit mortars so I was not sure. He said he contacted the Firepower Royal Museum of Artillery and they told him what it was.  Maybe there were just not many made.  I was studying for an exam when it came out so I had forgotten about it.  I look forward to hearing from the others.

I wish we had a start a single firearms aution site.  Ebay will not sell some gun parts now.

[cannonmn]

One thing about British artillery, they mark it all over, with all kinds of marks.  This one has no marks, and the surface was still very smooth indicating it never had any marks.  I've seen a few British 19th C. Coehorns in iron and the weren't that "skeleton" profile of the Ebay mortar, they were more like the "Dictator" but smaller.  Whatever the thing is, it ain't a British siege or Coehorn mortar.

[copdoc]

If I were selling it and the museum told me what it was I would get it in writting and post it with the mortar. Agree the Brits mark their weapons all over. If is is bare that would pretty much settle it.