I can't believe this is mine - 1914 Lithgow SMLE Mk III

[Clash77]

Absolutely beautiful!

[Anzac15]

I do believe that I wouldn't be able to get my wallet out fast enough if I saw that for sale at the local gun show. I'm usually a huge skeptic when it comes to pieces like this, 'no providence, no proof' is usually my motto, but I can't help but think this is legit. The 'AEgean' spelling is certainly correct for the time period. I honestly think you have the real deal there, well done, and feel free to post this at least once a month so that I can gaze enviously at it more often! Thanks for sharing!

[Donzi]

Actually more common than not up until the 1920s or so. Found in print in both upper and lower case letters. It WOULD be odd if added Post WWII, so that carving is likely old.

Very true!! I just learned yesterday, thanks to Alex Trebek on Jeopardy, that this coupling of 2 letters is called an ash. I don't know why. This is one of the very few interesting facts I've learned from watching TV.

[Patrick Chadwick]

That AE on agean is interesting, I wonder if that style of lettering denotes some history or location of the user, its an odd habit to write that way.

Look up " AE ligature". The ae combination was used in Latin and Anglo-Saxon texts. Hence Anglo-Saxon Aesc, modern Ash, German Esche (the ash tree). For someone to use it in a hand inscription indicates a real old-time classical education, like we don't have no more.

Ligatures were usually a feature of handwritten, cursive script. Other ligatures are, for example, the fl currency sign for florin, the internal long s (also used in 18th C. English) that makes the word Post look like Poft in some old signs, and the long s combined with a short s that produced the German ß. If you enlarge a ß in the Palatino typeface, you can still see how the long and short esses have been joined.

And while we are at it: another ancient usage with a completely false modern explanation: when type was introduced by Gutenberg and friends, the type sets did not have a letter for the English "th" - thorn. So the printers used a Y as the nearest thing they could find. Which led centuries later to the fake antiquarianism of "Ye Olde Tea Shoppe". No-one in the past ever said Ye, which means You, when they meant The.

[Patrick Chadwick]

I can't believe this is mine - 1914 Lithgow SMLE Mk III

I am a great respecter of other people's beliefs. So if you can't believe it's yours, I will relieve you of the burden of possessing something that does not belong to you . Send it to me - I'll gladly repay the postage!

But seriously,

[AZPhil]

She sure is puuurrrtttyyy!
I would love her until the end of time if she was mine!!!!!!

[rickert53]

Fantastic piece to own. Well done.

[AZPhil]

And while we are at it: another ancient usage with a completely false modern explanation: when type was introduced by Gutenberg and friends, the type sets did not have a letter for the English "th" - thorn. So the printers used a Y as the nearest thing they could find. Which led centuries later to the fake antiquarianism of "Ye Olde Tea Shoppe". No-one in the past ever said Ye, which means You, when they meant The.

And my day is not wasted when I get to learn such knowledge.
Thanks

[RangeRover]

Lee-Enfields as language teaching tools! Thanks for the comments on the rifle and the education about the handwriting is bonus value I appreciate as well.

[The Monk]

Be rightfully proud!

And i would be if i owned it.

Did see it on another forum, but came for another look.

Great stuff, a nice rifle. ENJOY.