This is an extremely rare example of a late WWI German Air Force 4-barreled flare pistol as manufactured by the Gebruder Rempt company. These unique flare pistols were primarily designed to illuminate large battlefields and airfields for extended periods of time without the need to reload. Flares guns were the most efficient way to light large swathes of the battlefield by night, and were very useful in preventing enemy trench raids intended to disable barbed wire, and/or eliminate trench sentries and machine gun positions. It has a stacked single cartridge assembly that holds four different barrels. It has a double action type mechanism with four separate firing pin assemblies that in theory were designed to fire a single flare with each trigger pull. The upper rear area of the frame has a large mounting lug with a hole through the center where the flare pistol were intended to be mounted on top of a pole (or maybe a detachable shoulder stock), thus allowing the flare pistol to be angled up in any direction. It is estimated that approximately 2,500 were actually produced by six different companies, and according to a collectors flare gun registry, only 22 examples of this four barreled variant flare guns have been registered, indicating that this small number maybe all that are known to be in existence, with the rest probably being buried in various trenches in France. Because of its unique and interesting appearance, this gun was chosen as the centerpiece for the back of the dust jacket of German Flare Pistols and Signal Ammunition by Dr. Lorenz Scheit. The lower left side of the pistol is stamped with a "Crown A and B" proofs over "G.R.123". It has an all blued metal finish with walnut grips.

Very fine overall with 85% plus of the original blue finish still remaining overall with some light rust/oxidation on the grip straps, and sides of the barrels, with some spots of blue loss on the sides of 2-3 of the barrels. The grips are in fine condition with only minor handling marks on the sides. Certainly a once in a life time chance to acquire one of these ultra rare 4-barreled flare pistols.