A Few words from Christian Cranmer, owner of IMA Inc, about the cannon lock posted for sale on our website
here This, as it turns out, unique Cannon Lock was purchased by IMA in England in 2012 as part of a British Naval Collection the 18th century and Napoleonic Wars. This Cannon Lock DID NOT originate as part of Nepalese "Old Palace" purchase of 2003.
Since offering this Cannon Lock there has been speculation and concern expressed over the markings of Crown over G.R. and the Anchor stamp. On this matter we can confirm that this item came from an English Collection in 2012 and is in the same condition in which we received it. It may well be that these markings are unusual or may even have not been recorded before on such a lock but that doesn't mean they are fake.
We all know fakes exist in this and any other Collector's business but just because something shows up which is unexpected doesn't make it not original. IMA stands behind all the items we sell. If an item is NEW MADE that is the first thing we state in a product listing, we would never knowingly sell something newly made as an original antique, and in the case of the cannon lock, regardless of all the speculation, we still believe it to be 100% authentic.
Now, a few words about the cannons found in Nepal-
As many people know I spent five months in Nepal in 2003 packing up 430 tons of antique military surplus weapons. This included 146 Cannons, Howitzers and Mortars, mostly Bronze and some of which were breach loaders.
Some bear Nepalese Crests or Coats of Arms, some bear European markings and some were unmarked. We received NO Cannon Locks, at least not that we have found as yet. We do still have unopened cases of smaller items to go through.
Many groups of cannons are by and large identical to each other, with and without markings. We enquired with the Nepalese at the time as to the origin of the Nepalese Crests and were told that the Crests denote the gifting of any one Cannon from the then "Prime Minister to the Army" showing the date (in Negari) when the Cannon was taken into service. By and large it was a tradition that many Cannons, obtained from where ever were so marked.
We were also informed that most Cannons were imported into Nepal by 18th and 19th century "Arms Dealers" without markings (having been removed) deliberately to hide the "origin" so that any reorder would come to the original supplier, all very logical and was not a new practice in the arms trade.
Nepal is a Mountain locked Kingdom high in the Himalayas; there was no access road for motorized Vehicles until the early 1950s. I even have a photograph of 40 porters carrying a late 1940s sedan automobile over the 60-mile pass.
The fact is that Nepal, a close ally of the East India Company and subsequently the British Crown, since 1816, yet remaining totally independent, was very well treated by the British is all respects which included arms and munitions. Nepal acted as a 'buffer' State between British India and Tibet, which is today part of China.
Now, as most people know this Nepalese purchase was not cheap and we of course used some borrowed money to bring it all home. In 2003 our first priority was to get out of debt. The cannons, which we at that point we really didn’t understand or have time for, were pushed very much onto the back burner.
We received many calls about this artillery but basically were too busy with handling the other materials to attend to cannon collectors at the time. At a Gun Show a close friend of mine in an effort to assist introduced me to whom, I was told, was one of the hobbies leading Collector Dealers. I explained that no doubt in the future my close friend might bring this gentleman to our establishment when we were sorted out at which time we might discuss matters.
On arriving at my office the following day at 8.30am I was indeed surprised to see this gentleman waiting for me. He explained he had come a long way and was just passing and decided to drop in. Reiterating that I was not ready for this and that I needed to do homework before getting into this I, as a good host, walked him through the one of our three warehouses. Perhaps 60-80 Cannons were scattered about (less than 50% of the total) we had additional cannons in our other warehouses in Pennsylvania and also in England.
I asked this gentleman if he was interested in assisting us with identification and perhaps the marketing of these "tubes" as the Nepalese always referred to them. He responded he was too busy. I asked him if he had any interest in the Cannons at all, to which he responded, "I have seen nothing I would not buy". All he wanted was individual prices but his timing was far too premature and he left, clearly unsatisfied.
I have seen this gentleman at various Gun Shows since and even tried speaking with him on one occasion however he just turns away. I later learned that another Collector Dealer who also had only seen a portion of our inventory and who did assist us with identification and marketing was a longtime serious competitor to my visitor so clearly I had ruffled my original visitor's feathers.
Since that time I am continually hearing how my original visitor has criticized the Cannons from Nepal. No doubt we have cannons that are low grade and native made but we also have, and have had, some truly wonderful examples that were clearly not made in South East Asia and some of these bear European markings. I suspect sour grapes play an element here.
The breach loading bronze Cannons, which are clearly conversions, are ALL Smooth bore, none of these former muzzleloaders were rifled. In some cases Nepalese and European Crest/Coats of Arms are still somewhat visible. Research tells us that on the North West Frontier the British converted muzzleloaders in this style to arm isolated fortresses with quick firing "shotgun" type cannon to repel native attacks in the Warziristan Campaign of 1895. Gurka troops were no doubt there and these Breach Loaders may have come home with them or the idea of converting Cannon already in Nepal may have originated with these troops. Regrettably, we do not have the Breach Blocks for all of them.
Clearly the Nepalese purchase has created great interest but some of the findings inevitably have changed what Collector's had previously understood. One Collector even decided the whole project was a ruse and that we were manufacturing all these Antiques in the third world and trying to hoist them onto the American Antique market.
So there you have it, we purchased 146 Cannon, Howitzers and Mortars and we have over half remaining, many are identical to each other, with or without markings. A great majority of these originated outside Nepal be it from the East India Company or from Europe or both.
As time passes we will continue to offer an occasional Cannon on our web site but whatever happens it seems there are always people out there, well intentioned or otherwise, who may or may not be experts, who want to rain on the parade.
Finally if there are any of our customers who have purchased Cannons from us who think they were deceived or mislead please do not hesitate to contact me directly.
Thank you for your interest in our material.
Sincerely,
Christian Cranmer
