Although my renos are ongoing (contractors are f***king criminals and don't let anyone tell you different), I saw this for sale and had to give myself an early Christmas present. It's a French Berthier M1890 cavalry carbine in 8mm Lebel, made at Chatellerault in 1891. The M1892 artillery carbine is pretty common, but original cavalry carbines are very rare. Although the French army had a large cavalry force in 1914, they realised pretty early on that La Grande Guerre wasn't going to be a cavalry war and dismounted most of their cavalry.
Although they retained their carbines in the trenches (a 37" Berthier beats the hell out of a 51" Lebel in a trench that's 4' wide), most of the M1890s were rebuilt into M1892s when they passed through the armourers for maintenance - the only real difference is the bayonet and stacking hook, both of which were considered useful when dismounted. In 13 years of collecting I've never seen an original 1890 outside of the French army museum until this one.
However, this one has the extremely rare (and often discarded) sheet metal dust cover on the bolt introduced in WW1, so it's pretty much certain this spent time in the trenches - most likely with a Hussar or Chasseur light cavalry regiment, as the Cuirassier heavies had their own (especially rare) carbine model, and the Dragoons were early adopters of the M1892. It's unfortunately missing it's side-mounted cleaning rod, but I think I can source one out from another collector.
Either way, it's a super rare original WW1 carbine, in really nice shape, and definitely worth breaking my gun fast! Excuse the cell phone pictures, my camera is still at home.
