British Rifle Oil Bottle Query

[Scott B]

Hi everyone,
I have in my possession this brass oil bottle. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, something seems to be amiss! The date on the base appears to be "73", which I assume stands for 1973, and the crown looks like a Queens Crown which ties in with the 1973 date. I am led to believe, though, that these oil bottles were not manufactured in brass after WW2. This leads me to look at a date of 1873!! The oil bottle looks too well engineered to date from this time, if in fact they were in use at this time. Any help would be very much appreciated.
Regards, Scott.

[Scott B]

Complete Oil Bottle

[leigh kitchen]

Looks like a Victorian Crown - 1873?

These things were still in use in the 1970's, wityh the SLR, the majority were bakelite or plastic, but some were brass, certainly I was issued WWII dated ones, got a couple around somewhere.

[SHEARING-CROSS]

Hi there , i know these brass types were used long after the war ( not sure how far )
but if this is an 1873 one its a very nice item to own i think to solve this you will have to work from the other angle , when did rifles start using oilers ?? were they used before the cartridge was introduced ? ,Michael.

[lnijherald]

Scott, check this website:

http://www.enfield-stuff.com/
There's some info about oilers there.
Regards, Luc

[Scott B]

Questions answered.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the input from everyone. Once again The Forum has helped me out.
Thanks to Luc, also. I checked out his web link, and discovered that the "oiler" is indeed from 1873 (73), is made by Enfield (E) and was used by The Navy (N). Cheers everyone.

Scott

[lnijherald]

Hi Scott,

Glad you found the site helpful, when I looked up my oiler it turned out to be a mix of a WWI Aussie spoon and WWII British bottle!
Regards, Luc

[petermac]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the input from everyone. Once again The Forum has helped me out.
Thanks to Luc, also. I checked out his web link, and discovered that the "oiler" is indeed from 1873 (73), is made by Enfield (E) and was used by The Navy (N). Cheers everyone.

Scott

Slightly wrong I'm afraid but an easy mistake to make. The '73' isn't a date, it's an inspectors number and the letter 'E' isn't for Enfield but is also an inspectors mark. The makers mark for Enfield on these MkIV oilers was always 'EFD'. It is assumed that these 'N' marked oilers were for the Navy but there is no evidence for this, they might also be made by Neilsen and Co who are listed as makers of oilers in the sub-contractors list but after the passage of time, who knows?

Just one of the pleasures of collecting these little critters. Peter

[Scott B]

Hi Peter,

Well, you've certainly blown me out of the water! Serves me right for being so eager to find an answer. I didn't realise there was so much to oilers.
It still amazes me how vast this collecting arena is, and how much knowledge is about. Many thanks, Scott.

[petermac]

Scott,

These are an interesting little sideline. There are a huge variety of makers marks all of which you will find on the 'enfield-stuff' site. Brass oilers were made in 4 different marks over a period of about 50 years. The first was the MkI which was longer than the others, it is VERY scarce as it is assumed from the 'List of Changes' (LoC) that most were converted into MkIIs. These are almost the same length as the MkII and IV but have a moch smaller knurled cap, it was produced by about half a dozen makers.

The MkIII has the bigger knurled cap and a slightly rounded base (most will just about fall over if you try to stand them up) These were produced before the First World War and you find about 10 different makers marks. the most common is the MKIV which should have a flat base. There are about 40 differents makers marks found on these. Up until the First World War the oilers were made in the same factory as the rifles but as the size of the army grew with conscription Government Arsenals concentrated on making rifles and the manufacture of accessories like oilers was contracted out to small metal working shops. Most of these but an identifying mark on the base, often the company initials.

You'll also find oilers made in huge numbers in India for the Ishapor made SMLE and rather scarcer ones made in Australia for the Lithgow SMLE. Both of these makers carried on producing brass oilers until well into the Second World War. British production switched to plastic oilers when the Enfield No4 replaced the SMLE in about 1942 although a brass oiler would be correct issue for long after that as there were large stocks in hand. There were quite a lot of oilers made in Canada, these are the same size as the SMLE ones but were made for the dreadful Ross rifle.

Scarce ones are the dated variety which is why you always have to question anyone selling a 'dated' oiler closely as well as regimentaly marked ones, both of these practices stopped before the First World War.

Hope this helps, Peter