45 M.P. (Maxim Pistol) by Eley, One Cartridge not a box.

Description

One Cartridge, not a Box: 45 M.P. (Maxim Pistol) Cartridge by Eley Bros. Ltd, of London, England produced in the1890s for the Sir Hiram Maxim’s pistol. The M.P. stands for Maxim Pistol, however some believe it was for (Mauser Pistol) or (Metropolitan Police) depending on what you read or hear. Minor spots, but for 120+ years old, Excellent condition   

The pistol and ammunition are over 120 years old and is based on a November, 1885 English patent design.Please note on the pictures of the boxes  & labels and writings below, I was given permission  to use from another website. The Short Story:The 45. M.P. ammunition  was produced by Eley Bros. Ltd, of London, England in the1890s for the .45 caliber Maxim pistol (by Sir Hiram Maxim of England). Allegedly only a few boxes known are to exist today and there is no firearm known to exist. Only a few of these cartridges can be found in the world as most are lock up in collections.

The Long Story:

“An example of Mauser Pistol has never surfaced.  As noted above, the cartridges were allegedly made by Eley from shortened .450 rifle cases. The boxes were apparently originally made to hold rifle cartridges, with the labels hand modified to show they held 50 of the .45 M. P. cartridges rather than 10 rifle cartridges. In addition, the cartridge identification and load information were also added by hand.The hand-labeling of thetwo boxes differs enough to make it obvious that they are different boxes; it is also obvious that they were labeled by the same hand. The most significant difference in labeling among the boxes is the inclusion of ‘Cartgs’  (.45 M. P. Cartgs) or a similar abbreviation in the cartridge identification line on two of them. Jacob Brandt includes the cartridge in his Manual of Pistol and Revolver Cartridges, and identifies it using the two meanings of ‘M. P.’ that were commonly accepted at the time my copy of his book was published (1998), these being ‘Mauser Pistol’ and ‘Metropolitan Police’. Unfortunately, no pistol had been located that used this cartridge so the true identification of the cartridge was open to speculation.A .45 M. P. cartridge in the Imperial War Museum’s collection (catalog # SAA1479) is described, and they point out the identification of the cartridge by Dr Geoff Sturgess in the Journal of the Historical Breechloading Smallarms Association (Vol. 2, No. 6, page 5) as being made for use in an automatic pistol patented on November 17, 1885 (British patent # 14047) by Sir Hiram Maxim. This is the identification of the cartridge that is accepted by collectors today. According to the web site, the pistol is ‘a delayed-blowback adaptation of Maxim’s short recoil locked breech machine gun design covered in his 8th July 1885 Patent Number 8281, and employs a tubular magazine beneath the barrel. The cartridges in the Patent drawing bear a strong resemblance to this cartridge (their catalog # SAA1479). Its considerable taper would have allowed the case to set back immediately and facilitate the delivery of energy to the breech face without gripping the chamber walls too tenaciously, as would have been likely with a conventional straight-cased revolver cartridge. It appears to have been cut down and formed from an Eley .450 rifle cartridge case. The cartridge is almost certainly black powder loaded, and would have soon been eclipsed by the development of smaller-bore smokeless self loading pistol cartridges in the early 1890s.’  The patent drawing of the pistol with it’s tubular magazine is shown below.”