3541 RARE 1818 DATED BRITISH CANADA - INDIAN TRADE

Category Firearms & Military
Auction Currency USD
Start Price 1,500.00 USD
Estimated at 3,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD
FUSIL. Cal. .59 caliber. NSN. 57" overall. 42" octagonal to round barrel. Pictured and described on pages 40 and 41 of "The Fur Trade", author Milton Von Damm: "This Indian Trade Fusil is one of the three known surviving guns from an 1818 contract with a Montreal trading company, probably The North West Company. Following the end of the War of 1812, Canadians distributed and traded many guns to Indians in American territory in the Great Lakes areas to retain Indian trading loyalties before American Traders occupied the lands. This maker was John Sharpe, who exported arms from Birmingham between 1811 & 1831. The Museum of the Fur Trade has a trade gun by Sharpe with Board of Ordnance marks and another with a tombstone barrel mark with an eagle, instead of a fox, over IS (John Sharpe). The tombstone mark on the upper flat for this gun in this picture is too faint to read. The lock is attached to the stock with 2 screws plus a wood screw to hold the end of the sideplate, not the usual 3 for English trade guns of this period. Other cost savings include a wood screw to hold the barrel tang to the stock, not a long machine screw securing the tang to the trigger plate, and a spliced fore stock using a funnel and cone technique so that shorter pieces of wood could be used. There are Birmingham proof marks on the barrel. The lock is marked SHARPE, 1818 at the tail, has been reconverted, and has a faint sunken tombstone under the pan. The brass buttplate is attached with nails." CONDITION: good to very good as restored. PROVENANCE: Lifelong Collection of author Milton Von Damm. (01-24766/JS). ANTIQUE: $3,000-4,000.