Rare Published Late 18th Century New England Brass Barreled... | Freeman's

Rare Published Late 18th Century New England Brass Barreled Flintlock Rifle, ex-Flayderman

.50 caliber. 35" heavy brass pinned octagonal barrel. NSN. Brass barrel and furniture, full-length cherry stock. Single shot flintlock muzzleloading brass barreled rifle. Reconverted flint lock marked Ketland/& Co in two script lines under the pan. The gun is otherwise unmarked. Heavy brass barrel measures nominally 1.11" across the flats at the muzzle and 1.22" at the breech. Equipped with a fixed dovetailed notch rear sight and a dovetailed brass blade front sight. Full-length stock with a graceful semi-Roman nosed drop and a deeply fluted rail at the wrist. The style of the stock and butt suggest the Worcester-Sutton area of Massachusetts. Buttplate with pronounced swell at the upper rear and with a multi-step tang. Small simple triggerguard with graceful lines and a simple three leaf finial. Simple and somewhat crude flat rudimentary S-shaped two-screw side plate. Rifle has three brass ramrod thimbles and an entry pipe but no rod is present.

According to the Flayderman Catalog #111 (Item #1705) gun is featured in Merrill Lindsay's book The New England Gun For the First Two Hundred Years, with discussion on pages 119 and 120 as item #11. However, while #11 on pages 117 and 120 do discuss a brass rifle with a T. Ketland & Co. marked lock, it also mentions a silver escutcheon plate and silver inlay at the breech. Since the balance of the description is correct (barrel length, width, caliber, etc) I think this was merely an editing or layout error, as other silver inlaid guns are described in the same section. Lindsay dates the gun to circa 1780. The gun is attributed to the Flayderman Collection in the book. A copy of the Flayderman catalog and Merrill Lindsay's book are included with the rifle.

This lot is located in Cincinnati.

ex-Norm Flayderman Collection

Good. Bore very good, moderately oxidized with deep rifling. Brass barrel cleaned long ago and toning to a medium golden color with scattered ding and impact marks, as well as scattered patches of oxidation and discoloration. Lock lightly pitted, reconverted to flint and not currently functional. The replacement mainspring is slightly too short to correctly rest on the tumbler when the hammer is lowered, so after it is correctly reinstalled, it slips off the tumbler when the hammer is lowered. This would be a simple fix for a competent restoration gunsmith. Buttplate with a rich, untouched ocher patina. Stock with moderate wear, with a nominally .325" wide by 15" long replaced piece of wood at the upper edge of the forend on the reverse and a similar 3" repair on the obverse at the muzzle. A diagonal repair about 6" long emanating from the front of the lock up towards the barrel juncture is present too, as well as a small crack at the rear lock screw on the reverse. Otherwise the stock is mostly untouched and uncleaned with a rich patina and numerous scattered bumps, dings and mars.

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Arms, Armor and Militaria

Rare Published Late 18th Century New England Brass Barreled Flintlock Rifle, ex-Flayderman

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