littleneckhalfshell said:
Neat, any idea on the history it went through? I see it was 'updated' to percussion sometime in it's life, looks like the original lock plate with the hammer replaced for percussion and the pan and frizzen cut away and replaced by the bolsterdrum and nipple. Wonder if it was updated by the US or as a private upgrade. Nice piece of history.
Very observant! It was indeed updated to percussion, as were most of the surviving guns.
The history of the gun is not known. It was given to my father as a reward for some oil burner work he did for someone. The work was done as a favor, as the person could not afford the work, but the owner saw my father admiring his gun collection, and gave the guns and the civil war sword (in another thread) to him. Neither the previous owner nor my father had any idea what they had hold of! I went to STCC as a student, and later taught there (as I do currently) while I attended grad school. I spent some time in the Springfield Armory museum killing time and admiring the guns and history. I then noted how some of the guns looked awful familiar.
I spent a day researching the gun, and found a very distinct stamp. The armory stamp is very unique for the very first year's models, having an arcing "Springfield" label. The writing is hard to make out on the gun but comes out clearly in photographs, it is clearly a 1795 model, which floored me! I couldn't believe my luck! My father and mother at the time were very persistent about "inheritance" issues, and asked me if there was anything I want to make sure is passed on to me. I quickly said "The antique guns!"
I have told him essentially "Don't touch them." He thought about trying to polish or refinish them, but I said no, that this would only decrease its value if it is done by anyone other than the professionals at the museum. Perhaps I will have them do it one day, if I can get clearance. Funny thing, the armory is a national landmark, so it is illegal to bring guns onto the grounds!
I am going to take some better and more detailed pics and send them to the armory for research. When I talked to them about it they were very interested in looking at the piece.
