Overkill: Victorian weapon is gun, knife, knuckles

ILKLEY, England, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- A popular Victorian weapon that functions as a revolver, a folding knife and a set of brass knuckles is headed for the auction block in England.

Charles Hartley of Hartley Auctioneers in Ilkley, England, said the Apache revolver dating back to about 1870 was discovered recently by a woman in her late father's sock drawer and the item will be auctioned Sept. 10.

Victorian Apache combo weapon headed for auction. (Hartley Auctioneers)

Hartley told the U.K.'s Metro the weapon, which was made popular by namesake gang Les Apaches in 19th century Paris, unfolds into a gun, a knife and a knuckle duster.

"It was designed for self-defense and to be used at very close quarters. There is no barrel to the gun so the user would have had to have had it pressed up against someone's chest," the auctioneer said.

"It is quite a sinister item and not something that a member of high society would have owned at the time."

Hartley said the revolvers are popular among collectors and the piece is worth an estimated $3,200. He said the gun function is no longer usable because it requires an obsolete variety of bullets.