POTD: BSA-Made Alexander Henry Carbine – Sultan’s Order That Wasn’t

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have an early falling block carbine with a story about an order that never happened. This is an Alexander Henry patent military carbine built on an action made by the Birmingham Small Arms Company in 1869, chambered for the 450 3 1/4 inch straight case.

Alexander Henry was an Edinburgh gunmaker, and his designs did very well in the British government trials to replace the Snider. Judges picked both his breech and his barrel as the winners, but the War Office paired Martini’s action with Henry’s seven-groove rifling, which gave us the Martini-Henry. This carbine has that same seven-groove rifling.

Sometime before 1869, Henry subcontracted BSA to make 100 actions and nothing else, finished by May of that year with serials in the 2000 to 2100 range. Henry then built them into complete guns in all sorts of configurations, and many went to military officers or were used for experiments. Author Jonathan Kirton believed Henry was banking on a contract to arm the Sultan of Turkey’s bodyguard. That contract never came, so the actions went into his regular military and commercial production. Kirton also thought this is the only military carbine Henry ever built on a BSA action.

Henry’s own ledger lists it as a military breech-loading carbine with Enfield sights to 1,000 yards, sent to a “Capt Hans Bush.” In my book, a one-off carbine tied to a sultan’s bodyguard contract that went nowhere is a great little piece of Victorian arms history.

Most of our POTDs utilize images from our friends at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse their current auctions – who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!

“Extremely Rare British BSA Co. Alexander Henry Military Carbine.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/4097/1392/extremely-rare-british-bsa-co-alexander-henry-military-carbine. Accessed 29 Sept. 2026.

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