Chinese 6 Pounder Bronze Cannon circa Early 19th Century Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. This is the only Cannon that IMA recovered from Nepal that originated in China, which borders Nepal to the East. There were basically three British/Chinese Campaigns in the Victorian era; Known as the Opium Wars the first was in 1840-1842, the Second Opium War spanned1856-1863. These wars concerned Britain’s granted right to sell Opium, mostly originating in British India, into the Chinese Market causing disastrous effects.

The final Chinese war was known as the Boxer Rebellion that lasted for the final six months of the year 1900. This final conflict involved all the Western Powers of Europe and the United States when the Chinese besieged the Foreign Legations in Peking. Remember the Movie “55 Days at Peking” starring, yet again, Charlton Heston! In all of these conflicts the British fielded not only Regular Line Regiments but also large contingents from the then Colonies, mostly from India. In each case, once final victory had been achieved, War Trophies were taken by the victorious Regiments and returned home as glorious spoils of war. This is how this very large Chinese Bronze Cannon on an original Wooden Carriage (which was probably not originally paired with this tube) found its way to Kathmandu Nepal returning with Gurkha units.

The cannon comes on the original 19th century “single tail” wooden field carriage with wood spoke wheels and iron tires that we received from Nepal. The elevation gear is not present. A Chinese Pagoda design surrounds the touch-hole and was cast into the cannon at the time of manufacture probably in early 1800s. Chinese Cannon of this type are nearly impossible to find and are extremely rare.

Approximate Specifications:

Bronze Cannon tube length: 63″ overall.

Bore diameter of 3.75″ translating to a “6 Pounder”.

11″ across at the breech.

18″ across at the large trunnions.

Fully Insured lift-gate truck freight delivery inside the continental US is included in the purchase price, for locations outside the US please contact us for a quote.