Montlahuc La Bastide
Here is a very curious twelve-shot pistol (!) of unspecified caliber, probably about 7 mm, reminiscent of a Jarre harmonica pistol from the 1870s.
Fortunately, it is clearly marked: Montlahuc La Bastide Paris brevet SGDG (without government guarantee).
Jean René Clergeau, in his book “Armes insolites et systèmes” (1983), mentions it from page 72. According to him, Labastide (in a word) is an inventor from Nice.
“The ammunition used was the 7 mm centerfire cartridge or .22 or .32 rimfire. There was no barrel, each chamber being long enough and rifled in front of the bullet to replace it. This allowed for very small dimensions despite the large number of shots, about 10x6 cm for a thickness of 2.5 cm, hardly more than for a packet of cigarettes. Having a quadrangular shape, the "Pocket Mitrailleur" fitted well in the hand, the middle finger acting on the trigger, housed in a trigger guard at the front of the lower part, the index finger, placed underneath, ensuring the hold. Using the middle finger to operate the trigger gave more force, this trigger not only cocking the firing pin before letting it escape, but also ensuring the rise of the block with each shot, which required a certain amount of effort. With central percussion cartridges, the firing pin ended with two points, alternately striking the cartridges of the two rows, a hole on the side of each chamber, receiving the useless point. In the case of annular ammunition, there was only one point, but widened and developing transversely to strike sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, the rims of the cartridges of the two rows. Naturally, as in the Colleye system, the block moved up one chamber with each shot, protruding more and more on top, from where it was removed to reload it, once the last shot had been fired. But Labastide's weapon, despite its qualities of simplicity, compactness and robustness, its small size and the number of shots available, does not seem to have been widely distributed. Appearing in 1883, it had the misfortune of appearing at the same time as a whole family of manually repeating pistols (...)" with a fixed magazine housed in the butt.
Furthermore, Jarlier mentions that "Montlahuc & de la Bastide were gunsmiths in Paris around 1890-1900. They invented and manufactured a system of multi-barreled pistols like the Harmonica. »
Finally, a member of the team found that a twenty-year patent for an “improved pocket machine gun” was registered in Belgium under number 77587 on June 20, 1887 by Louis Montlahuc (Paris), represented by a certain Mr. Desguin of Brussels by virtue of a power of attorney signed on May 23, 1887.
In short, a pistol that is certainly rare and interesting!
GP
