Macabre French Grave Robber Trap Gun 18th C.

[Jim McDougall]

Once in a while something really bizarre comes along, and I thought it might be interesting to others here.
In the 18th century, grave robbing for the anatomy schools became a profound problem, and enterprising 'resurrectionists' in the dark of night harvested thier 'scientific goods' for sale in a morbid and lucrative trade.

In many cases, worried families guarded the graves of loved ones for periods of time after burial to insure that they would not be 'exhumed' by these ghouls. Eventually heavy iron gates were installed and locked, and sometimes other devices were used.

In this case, a trap gun, sometimes referred to as a chicken thief gun, was employed as a deterrent against the 'tradesmen' (as Jerry Cruncher called himself in Charles Dickens "A Tale of Two Cities").

This rare example was sold in 2007, by Greg Martin auctions, and is an 18th century French example with a Charleville lock, and a 12" blunderbuss barrel.
This elaborate rig was camoflaged by the grave, and according to some of the detail with the sale item, a man disguised as a mourning woman sometimes visited the grave in daylight to verify and defuse the gun.

Just a bit of esoterica

Best regards
Jim

[kahnjar1]

Hi Jim,
These items are mentioned in W.W.Greeners book The Gun and its Development Ninth Edition 1910. They were made for all sorts of "alarm" purposes, right thru the various ignition systems--Flint, Percussion, Pinfire and Centrefire and some were made to fire flares. Probably a forerunner of more modern versions used in recent wars to fire parachute flares.
Use was not limited to graveyards. They were also used to protect stately homes, warn of poachers etc, and during the Boer War, to warn garrisons of native, and enemy activity.
Maybe they need to be reinvented to keep undesirables away from our collections!
Regards Stu

[M ELEY]

What a macabre and interesting piece. The strangest one of these trap guns I ever saw was in a Museum of Historical Arms catalog from the early 90's. It was a huge fish hook which fired a single slug down the fish's throat when hooked. Seems like it would have made a bloody mess vs a fish dinner. Perhaps it was meant to be a shark killer or such.

[kronckew]

if you look close you can see they were mounted on a pivot, and normally would have more than one string radiating out from it, the string that the robber blundered into would swing the gun around to line up with the trip string before firing. of course as a 'blunderbuss' they were loaded with buckshot or scrap metal (langrage) such that lining up approximately didn't really matter too much.

[Jim McDougall]

Thanks so much for responding guys!
This just seemed so bizarre I couldnt resist bringing it up. I've have had a fascination with anything out of the ordinary (go figure ! Interesting info on the 'fish hook version', Mark. It seems these innovative devices must have had lots of applications, and that one is really bizarre.
Sounds like an anti jaws device allright.

Museum of Historical Arms, now that being back memories from my earliest collecting days, and who can forget the Hoffmans. Hard to believe what those multicolor little catalogs go for these days.....I still have a pile I believe of a few at least. For many years they were the essential reference for identification....obviously there were some pretty blatant error, but based on what was known at the time.......this was pre-Ethnographic Sword Forum

You're right Kronckew, a load of this shrapnel was pretty much like the bouncing betty of the time. I would hope they didn't forget to disarm this thing for daytime mourning visits though...or the cemetery would be having a few more unexpected guests.

Stu, I was intrigued by the name W.W. Greener, the famed maker of the English 'guage'......thinking of one of John Wayne's immortal lines in "True Grit"..."...gimme the Greener!". Sounds like they also made the security alarm systems of the time.

All best regards,
Jim

[pallas]

in the 1860s-1880s there where craftsman in ohio who made "grave torpedos" for sale to people who wanted to avert grave robbers from digging up their reecently buried dead to sell as cadavers to medical schools......one such device was recently profiled on another episode of "history detectives" on PBS......

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by pallas

in the 1860s-1880s there where craftsman in ohio who made "grave torpedos" for sale to people who wanted to avert grave robbers from digging up their reecently buried dead to sell as cadavers to medical schools......one such device was recently profiled on another episode of "history detectives" on PBS......

Thank you so much Pallas!! I was afraid this thread had, uh, ...died

Best regards,
Jim

[broadaxe]

Hmmm, my small contribution to the thread: I once bought in a local auction a trap/alarm gun of a similar concept; though it was a breech loader and has been chambered for 12ga. The short smoothbore barrel was opened sideways for loading/unloading. It was obviously French, signed "depose", circa 1900.

[Jim McDougall]

Thank you Broadaxe!! I would say thats a monumental contribution, you're the first person I have ever known to have owned one of these
Thank you for coming in on this......it always is important to have input regardless whether someone thinks pertinant or not.You never know what clues are hidden in such notes.
All the best,
Jim

[broadaxe]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Thank you Broadaxe!! I would say thats a monumental contribution, you're the first person I have ever known to have owned one of these
Thank you for coming in on this......it always is important to have input regardless whether someone thinks pertinant or not.You never know what clues are hidden in such notes.
All the best,
Jim

In fact, at that auction there were two identical trap guns, both mounted on small wooden planks, so they looked like model cannons from a certain distance. Petty I didn't keep a photo. Their construction appeared to be industrialized, maybe cast, so it was probably meant to shoot blanks only (?).

[fernando]

Originally Posted by broadaxe

Hmmm, my small contribution to the thread: I once bought in a local auction a trap/alarm gun of a similar concept; though it was a breech loader and has been chambered for 12ga. The short smoothbore barrel was opened sideways for loading/unloading. It was obviously French, signed "depose", circa 1900.

You mean like this one?

.

[broadaxe]

Yep, this is the one.