Treasure is where you find it…

The thirty-year quest to save the Royal Armory of Nepal

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By Christian Cranmer

Tharston Press, Godstone England, 2004, 95 pages, hard cover, color photos

Available from International Military Antiques, Inc. (http://www.ima-usa.com), $34.95

You have, by now, heard of the incredible find of a huge weapons cache in a Nepalese palace.  You can see the evidence of this find in the ads from various suppliers (such as International Military Antiques (IMA) and Atlanta Cutlery) who are now selling such items as Snider cavalry carbines, Sharps slant breech rifles, Pattern 1862 muskets and Martini Henry infantry rifles among tons (literally) of other old mil surp items.  This book is the story of how this cache was found and what was found in it.

As a kid, you probably read books about treasure and treasure hunting and finding that hidden pirate’s treasure.  This book is like a dream come true for many of us collectors/shooters.  For collectors of older mil surp weapons, the palace of Lagan Silekhana is exactly that, a treasure find of enormous size and value.  Not only was there so much material purchased and shipped (over 430 tons packed in 31 twenty and forty foot shipping containers) but the quality of the weapons found was amazingly good. 

The book tells the story of how Cranmer started in the antique business and heard about this cache from others in the business and then spent the next 30 years fighting political instability and red tape trying to see it and then buy it.  They finally did manage to procure it and started packing in 2003, taking five months to clear out the old armory.  They found not only weapons that dated back through the Napoleonic wars but also more recent WW2 firearms including Enfield No.1 and No. 4 rifles and US made M3 grease guns.  Ninety seven percent of the weapons retrieved dated before 1898.  And they did not only find firearms.  All around the palace were artillery pieces, swords, Kukris fighting knives, bayonets and huge numbers of spare barrels, locks, musket balls and flints.  Cranmer also presents a history of Nepal and discusses the how the country ended up with this massive collection of weapons through the ages.

There are dozens of pages of color photographs that show what they found and how they removed the items.  Stacks and stacks of muskets, rifles, and bayonets.  Plus photos of the palace itself and the mountain locale in which it sits.

There is a companion book entitled  “Guns of the Gurkas” by John Walter (available from IMA) that discusses the pistols, rifles and machine guns of the Nepalese Army from 1816-1945.  Other books with more detailed research may appear in the future.

This is a firearms book that not only is a great story and reference, but would also make a great coffee table book and gift for the collector and shooter.

From the IMA web site:

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