mid 1800s site

[Bartman]

mid 1800's site

Found this piece along with some other relics. It was about 8" down. It is heavy, but not made out of lead. The back piece looks like it connects to something.

 

[Hill Billy]

Re: mid 1800's site

Key hole cover for an old lock?

 

[Hidden_Realm]

Re: mid 1800's site

musket escutcheon plate

 

[timekiller]

Re: mid 1800's site

musket escutcheon plate

Agreed,thumbplate........commonly seen on the First Model Brown Bess.
Take Care,
Pete,

 

[CASPER-2]

Re: mid 1800's site

nice find - carefully clean - see if there are markings

from "COLLECTORS ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION"
talk about coincidence
was looking thru this book when i came upon your post

 

[Hill Billy]

Re: mid 1800's site

Oh well, I tried.

 

[Bartman]

Re: mid 1800's site

Thanks guys! I knew someone on here would know what it was. I think it has an "S" marking on it. Any ideas on how to clean it?

 

[timekiller]

Re: mid 1800's site

Thanks guys! I knew someone on here would know what it was. I think it has an "S" marking on it. Any ideas on how to clean it?

I'll share with ya my ways of cleaning anything copper,brass,or bronze.Everybody has there own way but..................I have a old sauce pot I use to put my objects in with peroxide heat on stove as low a temp. as you can, boil it till it purdy much stops it's rapid boil,pour on a bed of paper towels or in the sink (with the drain plug in ).Once cool enough to touch I use qtips and cool peroxide & continue to wipe until the qtips quit looking dirty, never useing water unless in the beging before the boil to get the large easy stuff off.After that my wife likes burning sented candles all the time so I put them to the use.Mainly useing the white wax ones myself.What I do is take a qtip and wipe up the sweat from the wax on top.It looks like little beads of water but is wax oil.I then smear it with the qtip all over the sufface once covered I use dry ones & wipe up the extra until I'm happy.
Take Care,
Pete,
Here's a real old thumbplate I did couple years ago............to see,& the cheap candle to show the sweat on the wax I use.

 

[Bartman]

Re: mid 1800's site

Thanks, I was going to try hot peroxide, but didn't want to screw this one up. That LC in the background didn't clean up too well with hot peroxide.

Edit. Cleaned up somewhat with hot peroxide. Looks like it has S with 63 below it (like example above). Is this attributable to any variety of thumbplate?

 

[timekiller]

Re: mid 1800's site

"Looks like it has S with 63 below it (like example above). Is this attributable to any variety of thumbplate?"
Your piece was most likely off a short land pattern Brown bess.Made after "1768" the "S" is the unit & the 65 is the musket issue number.




The walnut buttstocks of Brown Besses showed little change from 1730 through the 1790s. A circa 1715 - 1720 evolving pre-Bess Pattern by Predden (No. 1) has iron furniture, a wavy butt tang, and undeveloped beavertail carving around the barrel tang. The 1730 and 1742 Long Lands (No. 2) introduced a 6" stepped brass butt tang and had a thick comb. By the time of the 1756 pattern, (No. 3), the beavertail carving was established and the comb narrowed. The shortened barrel (42") Marine or Militia design (No. 4) adopted a reduced 33/4" butt tang having a top screw and omitted an escutcheon. In 1768, the new Short Land standard infantry pattern (No. 5) kept both the reduced butt tang (without a top screw) and the escutcheon whose British marking, "B/14," signifies Unit B, musket No. 14.