The Firearms Museum of Texas and The Ray Collection officially opened their new “Guns of Empire–1776-1945” exhibit on Saturday in Brownwood. The exhibit features an incredible collection of firearms-showing the history of the United Kingdom, the Country of Nepal, and one of the World’s first multi-national corporations– the United East India Company.
The owner of the private firearms collection, Marcus Ray, and his family attended Saturday’s opening of the exhibit and kicked things off with a ribbon cutting and demonstrations. Ray also showed off firearms from his collection that are not included in the exhibit to the lucky attendees on Saturday. One such weapon was a tiger rifle that he estimates was made in the 1850’s that was owned by two prime ministers of Nepal. Ray said that this particular firearm had never been seen in public before.
In addition to the exhibit, there is an unusual and exciting “back-story” about how these guns came to be in the United States, Texas, and Brownwood.
In 2003, after 30 years of searching and then negotiating, Christian Cranmer of International Military Antiques (IMA) purchased the antiquated storage arsenal of the country of Nepal – over 400 tons of muskets, swords, knives, cannons and other strange and wonderful treasures.
When these treasures were placed for sale, Mr. Marcus Ray of Fort Worth, Texas purchased a large quantity of the museum quality antique firearms. After exhaustive cleaning and conservation, these historic firearms and accessories are now on display at the Firearms Museum of Texas in Brownwood, Texas, from December 2011 until December 2012.
The three dozen firearms in this exhibit are all original guns dating from 1776 to 1945. They range from “Brown Bess” flintlock muskets exactly like those Americans fought against during our war for independence (1776-1783) to more modern Lee-Enfield rifles that England used during World Wars I and II. Most show wear and hard use as well as the ravages of time. One item of extreme rarity is a grenade launcher for use with the Brown Bess flintlock musket having a manufacturing date of 1776.
Included is historical information on the British Empire, the United East India Company and a display of Gurkha “Kukuri” knives and related information on Nepal and the Gurkhas.
In a strange connection with our own history, included in the display are two “Sharps” type firearms, very probably made in the Confederate States of America at the end of our Civil War (1861-1865). The Rifle and Carbine have no markings on them, not even on the sights; the stocks are made from furniture grade Honduran Mahogany- never used by Britain or Nepal. New evidence about the provenance of these guns has been developed which is included in the exhibit.
Available for purchase are a DVD and book (Treasure is Where You Find It) detailing the great adventure of locating and acquiring the Lost Arsenal; all proceeds of these sales go to the Firearms Museum, due to the generosity of the International Military Antiques Company.
Visit Guns of the Empire exhibit at Firearms Museum of Texas in the Old Brown County Jail on the courthouse square in Brownwood or for more information, visit The Firearms Museum of Texas website
Marcus Ray shows off the tiger rifle from his collection as part of the exhibit opening on Saturday, December 10th at the Firearms Museum of Texas
