Enfield .656″ P59 3 Band

A .656” PATTERN 1859 ENFIELD NATIVE INFANTRY THREE BAND PERCUSSION MUSKET,
39” barrel of .656” calibre with full Enfield proof and inspection stamps, fixed vee rear sight, standard
Enfield style lock stamped with the Crown V.R. cypher dated 1864. Regulation brass mounted full
walnut stock, butt with feint Enfield roundel to butt.
This is one of only 14,000 Pattern 1859 Native Infantry Muskets made at the Royal Small Arms Factory
Enfield. Approved by the Ordnance authorities on 7th May 1859 as an improvement on the Pattern
1858 musket. The main difference being the P59 has a slightly thicker and heavier barrel; it was found
that the thinner and weaker barrel of the P58 was liable to bend with bayonet use. Although approved
in 1858 no appreciable quantities were produced at the Enfield factory until 1864 and only 14,000 were
manufactured.
The P59 was one of a family of smoothbore Enfield’s produced for issue to Sepoy regiments in the East
India Governments army. After the mutiny of 1857 it was decided that native regiments be armed with
inferior weapons to the P53 of the British regulars. This musket made at Enfield in 1864 was shipped
to India and issued to a sepoy regiment in the Bengal army. (See A Catalogue of British Military
Longarms 1730-1930 page 134)
It is one of approx. 200 acquired by Walter Clode of Westley Richards from the family of the Maharajah
of Faridkot in 1992. The Maharajah had a large armoury of weapons left over from the days when his
family had its own private army allowed by and in support of the British East India Government.
Walter Clode was an old friend of the Maharaja and in previous years had purchased large quantities
of various arms from the family armoury, the 1992 batch was the last. In the heyday of the Raj, the
then Maharajah of Faridkot who was a Sikh ruled his domain in the Punjab under the control of the East
India Government. He was allowed a small army to maintain order and provide employment.
This P59 was undoubtedly one of a quantity supplied to him from E.I.G store when obsolete from
Government service. This musket and all the others I have seen from the same source show signs of
having been refurbished in the distant past, I suspect this was carried out at the Maharajahs armouries
The last Maharaja was a personal friend of Walter Clode the then owner of Westley Richards & Co. the
Maharaja died in 1989.
Following his death there followed a long battle over his estate from 1993 to 2013 and I believe it is
still on going. This is a rare gun and in very good plus condition with much deep blue, good bore, good
stock with some minor loss of sharpness. Serious black powder shooters consider the P59 to be the
most accurate of all percussion muskets due to it reduced calibre and its high quality of manufacture,
barrel boring and finishing. (From a famous collection)