Interesting Gaubert System Rook & Rabbit Rifle

I am interested in novel breech loading firearms of the mid-19th Century and this is an interesting and rare firearm manufactured circa 1860 that demonstrates the Gaubert system. The period between 1840 and 1860 saw a rush towards the development of breech loaded firearms and an extraordinary number of innovative and patented designs. Jean-Baptiste Gaubert was a French gunmaker whose workshop and shop was in the 13th Street Notre Dame of the Fields. He was also represented in Liege from 1859 by Spirlet who was taken over in 1863 by P. Dusautoit.
The Gaubert system is loaded and unloaded by moving a lever at the front of the barrel which then disengages a cam to allow the whole of the barrel to move forward on a slide with enough latitude to extract and insert cartridges. At this time the cartridges were rimfire or pinfire and this excellent example was chambered in 8 mm rimfire, a calibre that has been obsolete for nearly 150 years. The rifle has a good walnut stock with fine checkering, steel butt plate and foliate engraving on the receiver and end of the barrel. Gaubert’s name is stamped underneath the receiver with a serial number. The top barrel flat has been stamped “Acier Fondu” which is not a maker or retailer but the French words for “cast steel”.
This rifle would have been an equivalent to an English “rook and rabbit” rifle firing a fairly large bullet at low velocity. I suspect that the Gaubert system was probably the inspiration for the Darne sliding breech mechanism that is still being used today.
An interesting firearm, seldom seen in the United Kingdom.

Code: 50659