John Mason (Photos Added 7/4/11)

[InspectoR53]

I have a longrifle stamped "J Mason."  I believe he was in Worchester, Mass.  The gun was handed down to me from family in Ayer, Mass.  A local fellow here in Eau Claire, WI tells me it was made by John Mason of Worchester and showed me similar work of John Mason in books that he has.  I had the local fellow, a machinist and avid flintlock collector, do some work on the rifle to stop a decaying stock around a crack that is similar to another post here about another J Mason / Salis (?) gun.  He now says the rifle is fine to shoot and that he fired it upon completion.

I know people are always saying don't do anything to an antique but, it is now not collecting dust and decaying, rather a useful item in the family.  So, if it isn't worth as much now I don't mind since I have a feeling it was worth around $800.00 only and will now last anther hundred plus years.

I emailed the pictures to a member here with a New England Fowler who will post them since I have not figured it out yet.  I look forward to your comments.

by the way, I saw a name that was familiar somewhere here, Whiskers.  If you are an educator I sent pictures of this rifle to you about eight or nine years ago.  Since then I have learned what I now know and am looking for any further information.

Thanks to all,
Bob S

[msmith]

The only thing I can find on John Mason is , That John Mason (1775-1843) apprenticed to Thomas Holbrook (1747-1810) of Sherborn MA & in about 1797 John Mason moved to Shrewsbury MA, where he set up a gunshop..Also Silas Allen may have apprenticed to John Mason about  1800.  For your info , this  info is from Bulletin # 44 American Society of Arms Collectors, "Worcester County Gunsmiths 1760-1830 by Thompson..This may be the stuff your buddy has already showed you...I don't think there is a really good book on New England Guns...It seems awhile back on this site one of the members was thinking about  writing  a NE book, So whoever that  was could probably answer a lot of your questions...You might search this site for past  topics on New England Guns...There is a book by Merrill Lindsay, called The New England Gun..I think it has some pictures , but not held in real high regard by NE Collectors.......

[lexington1]

I am very much looking forward to seeing pics. I have a NE rifle that I believe may have been made by John Mason, but am not positive. 

[lexington1]

I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but that gun looks to me very much like Welcome Mathewson's work, even though it's marked J Mason.

[msmith]

Maybe Welcome apprenticed to Thomas Holbrook..He seems to be the father of several New England Gunsmiths, John Mason apprentice to Holbrook,Silas Allen apprenticed to Mason, Martin apprenticed to Allen..as did Hapgood....So it seems that they was one big happy family..It seems like many of the New England Gunmakers liked the 'Oval & Comet" side plate and really loved to use Silver Wire...Not trying to diss the New England Guns, but I would bet that it would be very hard indentify the maker of many NE Guns unless their guns are signed...
 May be more likely that Welcome apprenticed to Asa Waters SR of Sutton as did Joel White,W. Allen and his sons Asa JR & Elija.As Welcome was praticing in Sutton.  Kind of like the gunsmiths in our area, the more I research the more I find out they all seemed to have a connection...

[InspectoR53]

Thanks for the wonderful upload of the pictures!  I am obviously no photographer but they seem to be great considering they were taken very late at night.  I am certainly no expert on antique guns either, so I will let the people who are take a look and see what they think.

Thanks for all the comments and history and looking forward to more!

[JV Puleo]

Its a Mason all right. The name stamp name is distinctively his. I think I've had 2 or 3 of them, all marked identically to yours.
Its a very nice NE rifle.

[Dphariss]

Very nice rifle.
Thanks for sharing

Dan

[JV Puleo]

I'm inclined to agree that trying to attribute unsigned NE rifles is virtually pointless. There just aren't enough differences... most were made in the same geographic area and its very likely that all of the makers knew each other. Oddly, Welcome Mathewson is likely a slight exception in that his sighed guns show some distinctive characteristics not shared by most of the other known makers... still, making any attribution without a signature is, at best, a long-shot guess.

We don't know who he served an apprenticeship with, if he even did in a formal sense. We do have good reason to believe it was in the Sutton, Mass, area - the home of Waters but also the center of Worcester County gunmaking. Mathewson was in Smithfield, RI (the town I live in now)... the Waters factory was just up the road about 15 or 20 miles at most.

[Odd Fellow]

That is a very nice piece, I wish I had it!

[alyce-james]

Good day Sir; Thanks for sharing a very interesting rifle with us. Great pictures. Turkeyfooter.