3559 EARLY 19TH CENTURY KETLAND - TRADE FOWLER.

Category Firearms & Military
Auction Currency USD
Start Price 600.00 USD
Estimated at 1,200.00 - 1,800.00 USD
Cal. .62 caliber. NSN. 59.5" overall. 44.5" round barrel. Pictured and described on pages 56-57 of "THE FUR TRADE". Author, Milton Von Damm: "This gun is an interesting example of a general purpose full stocked fusil being traded to Indians by the Hudson's Bay Company and to Osage Indians by the US Office of Indian Trade. The HBC connection is based on remnants of brass parts, especially the sideplate, being found in Indian graves in "Rupert's Land", where the HBC had its fur trade monopoly. The Osage connection is based on information that the U.S. used these fusils as chief's guns and that in 1809 some were purchased in Baltimore for the Osage Factory (US trading post) as substitutes for the common Indian Trade Fusil, normally imported from England and Belgium because of the British trade embargo. The unbridled lock may have a replacement cock and is marked KETLAND & CO on the lockplate. The stock is in very good condition. The brass furniture features a distinctive sideplate for the two screw lock which could be described as a flat dragon or a vine design. There is an escutcheon on the stock wrist which has a engraved border, the shallow trigger guard bow is engraved with a simple sun burst, and the two screw buttplate is ornamented with an engraved border and three feathers on the finial. The barrel is marked LONDON on the top, has Birmingham proof marks and an unidentified OT mark on the side near the breech. The tang is squared at the end with a screw going down to the trigger plate which, along with three pins, attached the barrel to the stock." CONDITION: good to very good as restored. PROVENANCE: Lifelong Collection of author Milton Von Damm. (01-24769/JS). ANTIQUE: $1,200-1,800.