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19TH CENTURY .75 CALIBER CHINESE JINGAL
GUN CARTRIDGE – RARE HEAVY CALIBER SPECIMEN:
Known as a Jingal, or Gingall in China, (in the Hindi
language, Janjal), these guns were intended as fortress
defensive weapons. Employed by the Chinese and Indian
armies of the 19th Century, they initially
appeared as muzzle loaders and later as bolt action arms
firing fixed metallic cartridges in the late 1800’s and
early 1900’s. They took the form of light artillery
pieces mounted on a swivel or in the form of a heavy
shoulder mounted rifle fired from a rest, and ranged in
caliber from .60 to well over 1”.
The period photograph below shows a selection of these
Jingal guns leaning against the wall of a Chinese fort
during the period of the Boxer Rebellion. One of the
more enduring references to these guns appears in Ruyard
Kipling’s poem,
“The Grave
of the Hundred Head”:
“…The men
of the First Shikaris
Marched
till the break of day,
Till they came to the rebel village,
The
village of Pabengmay—
A jingal covered the clearing,
Calthrops
hampered the way...
The men of
the First Shikaris
Shouted
and smote and slew,
Turning the grinning jingal
On to the
howling crew.
The Jemadar's flanking-party
Butchered
the folk who flew….”
This specimen of a .75 caliber Jingal Gun Cartridge is a
center fire brass cased cartridge loaded with a flat
nosed lead bullet. Measuring 3.25” long and weighing
almost four ounces, it is an impressive looking
cartridge, particularly when compared to a .56-50
Spencer Cartridge as shown below.
A rare offering, this would be an impressive piece to
display with any grouping from the late 19TH
Century Imperial conflicts that raged throughout China
and India.
SOLD
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