Unboxing a stored Martini Henry from the Royal Armory of Nepal

In the late 1870s after a brief period of conflict the British East Indies Trading Company arrived at a peaceful agreement with the tiny kingdom of Nepal. One prong of this agreement was that henceforth England would supply arms and munitions to the army of Nepal. As England was then replacing their Martini Heny rifles Mk II and Mk III with the newer Mark IV, England began shipping Brown Bess muskets, Enfield muskets, Snider rifles and Mark II rifles and carbines to Nepal from all over the British Empire. The first shipment was in 1881. In a few years the shipments included old cannon, Gatling guns and many forms of swords and early pistols.

When England modernized to their .303 cartridge many Mk IV Martini Henry rifles made their way to Nepal. By then local blacksmiths had also begun making their own versions of the Martini Henry rifle for the Nepal King's armay. When the King of England made a friendly visit to Nepal upon observing the old Martini Henry rifles he ordered that they be replaced by the newer Enfield bolt action rifles and this was done. By the end of WW II Nepal had other sources for their weaponry.

What was not generally known in the West was until the year 2002, was that unlike other countries which destroy or sell old weaponry when it is no longer needed, Nepal stored the items. In the 1890s the King ordered that all of the older weapons should be greased, then placed in one of the old palaces.

In 2002 Nepal's King and Queen were assasinated at dinner by their son who died in the fighting that ensued. The countrie's Prime Minister then announced he should be the new King.This plunged the country into Civil War.. During a lull in the fighting an American antiquity dealer while visiting Nepal heard a rumor of an old arsenal which may hold antique weapons. He nosed around and eventually was given permission to explore the old palace and make an offer if he was interested. The company was IMA and the find is easily described as the find of the century. IMA negotiated and purchased the entire contents of the castle. There are several videos on YouTube about the purchase.

IMA bought the entire contents of the former King's armory. Three whole floors of palace with literally tens of thousands of rifles, muskets, swords, pistols and bayonets. Cannons, Maxim and Gatling guns too, as well as natve to Nepal antique weapons not previously seen in the West.

Many of the weapons found in the arsenal were of sufficient rarity outside of Nepal's arsenal that specimens in the West were valued at tens of thousands of dollars. Some weapons, such as the Nepal Birda crank fed guns were only referenced in old books, with no specimens known to still exist, until IMA found a half dozen intact specimens in the old Nepalese aromory.

How many weapons? Over 31 tractor trailers full. Almost a quarter ton of customs paperwork was needed to remove them from Nepal and get them into the US. There were logistical problems ranging from simple, such as how to get a bunch of cannon off the third floor of the palace (simple, dismantle a palace wall, then use a crane to lift and lower them) to more complex ones such as arranging a secure convoy of 31 trucks to drive the weapons from the mountains of Nepal to a location where they could be securely loaded onto container ships for voyage back to the United States for sorting and sale

Because the British used the weapons, then shipped them as used to Nepal, many of the cache items had and have direct physical ties to major historical events, Brown Bess muskets possibly used in the American Revolution or the War of 1812, Enfield muskets of the P63 type (listed as one cause of India's Sepoy Mutiny), Martini Henry rifles that had seen service against the Zulu nation in Natal, Snider rifle's from battles on the plains of Ethiopia, etc.