Mark Aziz’s strange and wonderful gun collection is up for grabs (PHOTO)

By Chris Eger

The Aziz collection includes a number of items that are literally, one-of-kind. (Photos: Cowans)
For decades, Mark Aziz haunted gun and trade shows from coast to coast amassing a collection the likes few have seen. And now it is up for auction.
Aziz, an Army Air Corps veteran with a love of firearms, was the publisher of Gun Room Press, as well as a voracious collector and arms historian his whole life. The revered member of the American Society of Arms Collectors died in 2015 at age 93, taking with him a wealth of gun lore but leaving behind his personal firearm collection. Cowans has some 300 of his prized pieces at what they describe as an “unparalleled” offering this week.
An authority on early revolving firearms, among the Aziz guns available, are no less than four rare Paterson revolving rifles, Billinghurst pattern guns as well as the only Artemus Wheeler revolving flintlock rifle in circulation — and that’s just scratching the surface.
The Wheeler, a .50-caliber, 7-shot revolving rifle from 1818 was purchased by the U.S. Navy for trials. According to Cowans, of the four known to exist, three are currently in the Smithsonian and VMI museums, making this example the only one

Source: Guns.com