Jim,
What do I thnk?
Among the Austro-Hungarian gunmakers who worked on k.k. Army weapons, T. H. Rotthaller was completely unfamiliar to me. When I attempted to check "T. H. Rotthaller" in my copy of Josef Ahammer's book Verzeichnis österreichischer Büchsenmacker [Directory of Austrian Gunmakers], there was no one listed under that name.
I then Googled "Rotthaller" and "Büchsenmaker". That picked up a listing in the 1857 issue of Handels und allgemeiner Wohnungs-Anzeiger der kaiserl. königl. Haupt- und Residenzstadt Wien und der zum Wiener Polizeibezirke gehörigen Ortschaften [Trade and General Housing Directory of the Imperial-Royal Main and Residence Cty of Vienna and the Localities Belonging to the Vienna Police District]. A Theresia Rotthaler was listed as a Crown authorized gunmaker located at 6 Gärlneg Strasse, Neuterchenfled. Neuterchenfled is now part of central Vienna.
The Crown/W "proof" mark is not helpful. The k.k. Imperial government did not establish empire wide proof standards with marks until 1882. I have been unable to obtain a crib sheet for the large number of proof and assembly marks found on barrels manufactured prior to the time. Even the curator and master gunsmith at the Austrian Army Museum didn't know of one.
The lock: 1855 was the first year of production for Muster 1854 weapons, since the Emperor authorized production in December 1854. Rearmament of the Jäger battalions was the first order of priority. Once that was completed the k.k. Army started manufacturing infantry rifles. All locks used on k.k. Army weapons, even those on contractor produced arms, were manufactured at the Vienna Arsenal for standardization. The contractors manufactured their own locks on arms intended for export, or reconfigured older System Augustin tubelocks.
The ramrod was customarily carried separately from the rifle on the Jäger's load bearing harness until 1861-2.
The buttplate: Unit and weapon numbers were customarily stamped on the buttplate. When looking at k.k. Army weapons used in the American Civil War, that can tell you if a weapon had been used by the k.k Army prior to export, while absence of a mark indicates that it came out of the k.k. Army's war reserve stocks or was manufactured for export by a contractor. There were only 32 Jäger battalions, however, so "61 0" is not a Jäger unit/weapon number.
I wonder if the rifle, or the barrel, was manufactured and sold privately for competitive shooting, with the barrel manufactured to tighter than k.k. Army standards, and intended to be shot with a lubricated unpatched bullet. In an article in the Italian black powder magazine Avancarica, Roberto Vecchi described some unusual Dornstutzen he observed in the Tyrol of northern Italy. Until the end of World War I the Tyrol was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and many Italians from the area had proudly served as Kaiser Jäger. The standard weapons manufactured in Vienna by k.k. Army contractor Carl Pirko were marked with the monogram “CP”. Vecchi found some of Pirko’s Dornstutzen with a higher degree of finish which were marked in full with “PIRKO IN WEIN.” Aditionally, he observed a small number of Pirko’s Dornstutzen with exceptional mechanical finish which were marked “CP” and equipped with a set trigger. Vecchi described these last Dornstutzen as sniper rifles. Competitive rifle shooting has had a long history in the Tyrol of northern Italy, Austrian, and Switzerland, and I suspect that the higher finish rifles were manufactured by Pirko for private purchase and were intended for use in competition.
You have an interesting piece.
Rgards,
Don
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Now to get back to the range with it and do some more shooting.
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