A gun used by the brother of notorious Australian outlaw Ned Kelly during their gang’s infamous last stand in 1880 has sold for AU$122,000 (€98,423) at a Melbourne auction.

The East India Company cavalry pistol, which belonged to Kelly’s younger brother Dan and has his name and the year 1876 engraved on the walnut stock, was bought by a private collector.

“It’s the only gun that has been definitely associated with Dan Kelly,” auctioneer Charles Leski told ABC radio.

“It looks like he got it as a teenager, which probably wasn’t unusual at the time for a country lad to have a gun.”

The vintage muzzle-load single-shot percussion pistol, which uses powder and a lead ball instead of a cartridge, was tipped to fetch up to AU$125,000.

Dan Kelly had the pistol with him during the 1880 siege of the Glenrowan Inn, when his outlaw brother and their gang made one last stand against police.

Everyone but Ned Kelly – wearing his iconic home-made plate metal armour and helmet – was killed in the showdown. Kelly was later hanged at Melbourne Gaol, famous for uttering the final phrase “such is life”.

The gun disappeared for 20 years after the siege and was said to have been found on the banks of a river by a local who sold it to a Queensland gunsmith named H.P. Hansen and it has remained in their family ever since.

The Kelly gang exploits have been the subject of numerous films and television series.

Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger played the lead role in the 1970 film Ned Kelly, while Heath Ledger starred as the bandit in a 2003 remake. (AFP)

Who was Ned Kelly?

• The infamous Australian outlaw and hero was born in Victoria, Australia, in 1854 or 1855.

• He was the son of an Irish ex-convict, transported to Australia by the British Government.

• Kelly was first arrested at age 14 for stealing 10 shillings.

• He eventually became an outlaw and bank robber, wanted for the murder of a policeman in the late 1870s.

• His last stand is known as the Siege of Glenrowan Inn in 1880. He was captured after a shootout with police. His gang famously wore improvised body armour.

• Kelly was hanged on November 11, 1880.

• His last recorded words were: “Such is life.”