18th Century Dutch Flintlock Musket Rebuilt and Upgraded with Barrel Bands

American Revolution - War of 1812

.75 caliber. 40.5" originally pinned barrel, upgraded with brass bands. SN: 696. Bright finish, brass furniture, hardwood stock. Single shot flintlock muzzleloading smoothbore musket. 6.5" flat beveled "banana shaped" flint lock with faceted and fenced unbridled integral iron pan and flat faceted swan neck cock. Lock marked only with a touch mark below the pan and appears to be in original flint with some old repairs on the interior. Round barrel with baluster turned rings at the breech and 9" from the breech, top of barrel engraved No969. Top of buttplate marked with a Q and with the punch dot initials OL. The toe of the stock is stamp numbered 31. Heavy brass triggerguard and two-screw side plate, buttplate with typical bulbous Low Country screw heads on the bottom and a flush fit screw head in the tang. the stock shows rudimentary raised carved moldings around the lock mortise, the counterpane and around the breech plug tang. The musket is equipped with an old iron trumpet head ramrod that is a little short of being a fully functional length for the gun.

The musket was rebuilt, likely by the Dutch sometime circa 1790-1810 using older pattern components like the barrel, lock and old pattern heavy brass hardware and mounted to a newer stock with bands. The tenons for the barrel pins were removed from the barrel, it was probably shortened 2"-4" and the bayonet lug under the barrel, was relocated 1.5" from the muzzle of the shortened barrel. The newer stock was not made for pins, but rather intended for use with barrel bands with only the upper band being equipped with a retention spring and the other bands being friction fit. These upgraded "banded muskets" were actually rather obsolete by this time and many were sold of to American buyers, the state of Massachusetts in particular. This musket was acquired from Norm Flayderman's Catalog #115 as item #1123. While Flayderman lists this as Revolutionary War used example, banded Dutch muskets post-date the war, although the components used in their assembly often pre-date the war. A copy of the Flayderman catalog is included with the gun.

This lot is located in Cincinnati.