BSA Model 1914 Lewis Machine Gun   303

           This is a great example of a WW1 British Army (BEF)  Lewis Machine gun in full 

early deactivated condition.   As you can see from the photos this WW1 Lewis Machine gun is totally strippable and is dry firing. 

          It comes with its original 47 round standard British WWI  Lewis 47 drum magazines for infantry use.

      The BSA Modal 1914  Lewis gun is a World War I light machine gun of American design that was perfected and widely used by the British Empire.

      It was first used in combat in World War I and was manufactured under licence by BSA & Co  and continued in British Army service until the end of the Korean War. 

  Two close up views of the receiver over top and underside 

       The Lewis gun was invented by US Army Colonel Isaac Newton Lewis in

1911, based on initial work by Samuel Maclean.  

        Due to the US Army not adopting the Lewis gun,  Colonel Isaac Newton Lewis headed to Belgium where he established the Armes Automatique Lewis company in Liège to facilitate commercial production of the gun. Lewis had been working closely with British arms manufacturer BSA & Co.

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     The Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited (BSA) in an effort to overcome some of the production difficulties of the weapon so in 1914  BSA purchased a license to manufacture the Lewis machine gun in England, which resulted in Col. Lewis receiving significant royalty payments and becoming very wealthy.

   Lewis and his factory moved to England before 1914,  away from possible seizure in the event of a German invasion.

                                       Above

                          Fully marked with the

                             BSA factory stamp 

          Armes Automatique Lewis company stamp

         Belgium and Lewis Auto Gun 1914 -Pat stamp

       The Lewis Light Machine gun has many years been the very top of list for collectors of British Military historical weapons.  To find one in this fantastic original condition is very rare these days and that has been sympathetically deactivated in which the whole gun does completely strip down and has a smooth dry firing action 

£10,490.00