Tag Archives: Volcanic pistol

Omar’s Pistols Headed Home

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Cue the “That Belongs in a Museum” memes, authorities have managed to recover and return dozens of rare collectible guns– some priceless– to the institutions from where they were stolen.

The pieces all went mission in the 1970s, back when security was lax in most public museums, and all that was needed was a big screwdriver and a flashlight to pull off a low-risk burglary.

In all, some 50 items, some dating to the French and Indian War, were returned to 17 institutions located in five states. 

Among the more interesting items recovered were: 

  • An 1847 Mississippi rifle stolen from Beauvoir in Biloxi, Mississippi.
  • World War II battlefield pickup pistols– a Luger and a Walther PPK– once owned by General Omar Bradley, stolen from the U.S. Army War College in 1979.
  • Assorted 19th-century flintlock rifles stolen from Pennsylvania museums.
  • An early Colt Whitneyville Walker revolver, valued at $1 million, stolen from the Connecticut State Library.
  • 18th-century English and Scottish pistols stolen from the Valley Forge Historical Society Museum.
  • A Volcanic pistol stolen from Pennsylvania’s Hershey Story Museum.
  • A rifle from the Daniel Boone Homestead in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania.

A huge Colt Whitneyville Walker revolver (bottom row with CT tag) was taken back to its home state. A powder horn (center right) dating to the French and Indian War was stolen from a Belchertown, Massachusetts, museum in the 1970s. The Walker PPK and Luger in the top right corner had been donated by Gen. Omar Bradley to the Army War College in Carlise, Pennsylvania. An exceedingly rare Volcanic pistol stolen from the Hershey Museum is to the bottom right. (Photo: FBI)

More in my column at Guns.com.

Von Der Tann’s Volcanic

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So this just surfaced at an upcoming auction by Milestone. 

SERIAL NUMBER 1738. BARREL 6″. CALIBER .41. The Volcanic lever-action repeating pistol was made by Volcanic Arms in New Haven after the original pistols made by Smith & Wesson. Made circa 1855-1857. Standard features include a factory engraved brass frame, two-piece walnut grips with square butt, blued octagon barrel and tube, ring lever, wind drift rear sight, and bead front. Condition. Superb, 95% smooth blue patina on barrel, legends sharp, crisp engraving on the frame, excellent grips, the frame never cleaned. Fine working order. The bore is near mint. A wonderful condition one-of-a-kind historic German presentation Volcanic.

This is where this pistol gets both interesting and possibly one of less than a handful ever presented to a foreign dignitary or power. The Volcanic Arms patent New Haven stamp is clearly placed on top of barrel. On the right side of the barrel, engraved and silver inlaid is “ZUR ERINNERUNG AN EXC.” which translates “to be remembered.”

On right side is engraved and silver inlay “General v.d. Tann 26 iv 1881.” Ludwig von der Tann’s death date

Ludwig Freiherr von der Tann (1815-1881), Hanfstaengl, Fotographie ca. 1860, Hintergrund mit Aquarellfarben übermalt

Born in Waterloo, Ludwig Samson Heinrich Arthur Freiherr von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen, best just known as Von Der Tann, started his military career in 1833.

Promoted to major in 1848, he was well connected with Bavarian Crown Prince Maximilian who soon became king. He was awarded the Order of the Red Eagle by the king of Prussian during the war with Denmark. Tann served Bavaria in the Austro-Prussian war then was promoted to the rank of general in 1869 and commanded troops during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71.

Naval history buffs, of course, will recognize the name from the unique battlecruiser that carried the general’s name. The fastest battlewagon in the world when she was commissioned, the 21,000 ton SMS Von Der Tann was mauled at Jutland and later scrapped at Scapa Flow in 1919. Her construction sparked the growth of the evolutionary dead-end Invincible-class battlecruisers and similar vessels.

While the battlecruiser was raised by the British and scrapped, and the late general himself is entombed at the Alter Nordfriedhof in Munich, at least his pistol is up for grabs. The estimate for it is $7,500-$9,500.