Firearms Curiosa

Book excerpt: This book is filled with pictures of rare, strange and unusual guns, firearms and other weapons. Lewis Winant was a major dealer and collector of firearms. He assembled here more than 300 pieces. The many strange and freakish gun fabrications that are shown in this book are a tribute to man's inventive energy as applied to the development of arms. From days just past and from days long gone, Lewis Winant has selected over 300 pieces as representative of the oddities that have been constructed to utilize the propelling force of gunpowder. There are pistols in knives and canes; pistols in flashlights, purses, plows, whips, bicycle handlebars, stirrups, keys, pipes, belts, sundials, and other contrivances. In addition there are other types classified as oddities, such as squeezers, knuckle-dusters, alarm and trap. There are combination weapons, turret, chain and harmonica pistols, guns using superposed loads and other variations from the norm. These remarkable firearms come from more than fifty collections.