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RARE SHARPS RIFLE COMPANY EARLY TAN LABEL 5 ROUND
BOX FOR 44-100 – 2.6 INCH CALIBER PAPER PATCHED
CARTRIDGES – COMPLETE WITH ORIGINAL CARTRIDGES –
EXCELLENT LABEL: These two boxes of .44-100-2
7/8” cartridges are rare examples of the ammunition the
Sharps Rifle Company marketed during the 1870’s under
its own proprietary label.
The Sharps Company records document they purchased the
machinery and the components necessary to produce
cartridges in-house, and at some point in the early
1870’s they began to assemble the components into
finished metallic cartridges. To market the cartridges,
the company purchased pasteboard boxes and arranged for
their own labels to be printed. Based on the surviving
purchase records, Sharps apparently produced an
impressive number of cartridges, especially for a
proprietary operation such as theirs was, however
several factors contributed to a relatively low survival
rate of their cartridge boxes in the modern market. In
addition to the market demand and the rough conditions
of the buffalo range where so much of the ammunition was
shipped, eventually financial and market realities took
their toll on the company. After a relatively short ten
year run, the production of these proprietary cartridge
boxes ended with the company’s failure in October of
1880.
This paper patched bottleneck cartridge was introduced
in June of 1873, and it proved quite popular for a
time. In 1878, the company ceased making .44 caliber
rifles, responding to the market demand for .45 caliber
guns. While its unknown how this change in rifle
calibers affected the production of ammunition, if the
demand for .44 caliber guns had declined, it stands to
reason the demand for .44 caliber cartridges must have
been similarly affected, at least to some degree. If
indeed the production of .44 caliber cartridges was
reduced, that factor also would have contributed to the
low survival rate today of these Sharps Company boxes.
The boxes offered here are both complete with all five
original cartridges in excellent condition. The
cartridge cases bear no headstamp as is correct, and are
loaded with matching paper-patched bullets. The patches
are intact without any excessive wear or tearing. The
cartridges are still nested in the original wax paper
sheet dividers.
The labels on the packets are in excellent condition and
are fully legible. The boxes are full form and solid,
with no open seams, and no misshaping. The labels both
feature the hand written inked corrections to the
cartridge count and the caliber - a very common Sharps
Company practice and a characteristic that shows up more
often than not on surviving boxes.
These tan label Sharps Company proprietary boxes are
difficult to find on the current market – not that they
were ever common, and these two are particularly nice
specimens. Each is pictured below as separate
offerings.
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