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Very nice Confederate Artillery shell, early Gettysburg relic (SOLD,BS)

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Product Description

This is a great Civil War Artillery shell being offered, it is a Confederate Read projectile, sometimes called the “Virginia Pattern”. They were manufactured during the war employing John Read's design, probably at the Selma Arsenal. This pattern utilized two bourrelet rings as a labor-saving device. These rings had to be accurately machined, the rest could be left rough. The nose is relatively rounded, and the width of the bourrelet rings varies considerably, presumably this is an operator variance in the finishing process.

A lathe dimple in the base, and a casting sprue on the nose are prominent. Read developed a copper ring sabot that was more flexible than the earlier wrought iron sabots. The sabot is tapered at the top and seated in a deep groove well inside of the iron base. Copper ring sabot was cast thick and not milled, the rifling marks can still be seen on the sabot. The fuze employed is a Confederate copper time fuze, with two spanner holes. This was a fired shell and was recovered many years ago from the Gettysburg Battlefield.

A common practice during the late 19th century and early 20th century was to paint battlefield recovered artillery shells with black paint – this is one of those examples. There are two museum/inventory numbers on the base of the shell. This worked well with early museums because they were much cleaner to work with when put in displays. A small chunk of this shell broke off when fired, and now it exposes what the really unique copper sabot looks like. This shell was originally purchased from the HS, Gettysburg in the 1990s. It is a real beauty and would be the center piece of any Gettysburg or Civil War collection. A signed and embossed Certificate of Authenticity will accompany the shell.

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Quantity:
SKU:
0816191
Shipping:
$12.00 (Fixed shipping cost)