iron mounted fowler

[bob hertrich]

The fowler was my Fathers. I don't know where he got it but we are in New Hampshire. It has a 50 1/2" barrel, .68 cal. It has an old dovetail near the breech but no sight.
 It does have a front sight. I submitted this a few years ago but thought some new eyes might help identify it origins. The only marking I found is on the attached sketch.

[Mike Brooks]

Probably dutch, probably pre 1710.

[WESTbury]

Agree with Mike, early Dutch.

Page 108 of George Neumann's Battle Weapons of the American Revolution shows a slightly later Dutch Musket with the Oct to round barrel and very similar molding around the barrel tang and lock.

Thank God for George Neumann, in more ways than one.

[Joe S]

Probably dutch, probably pre 1710.

That suggests + 150 years working life for the gun. Very cool.

[bob hertrich]

Again the tired old saying"if it could only talk" but quite true.

[Collector]

Discussions on Dutch pieces seldom come-up and are so thin, that I'm going to take slight advantage of this one to advance a discussion about the tang carving.

Given the agreement on this being a Dutch piece, I'm surprised that no one has introduced the Tom Curran bench copy of a Rev. War longrifle speculated to being Dutch influenced and generally assigned to being in the 'Reading' school.  Certainly the comb profile on the original Rev, War longrifle has a decidedly Dutch influence.  For the sake of argument, the tang carving found on this original musket and on the original unattributed longrifle that Tom Curran copied are sufficiently alike to end virtually any speculation about that longrifle having a Dutch influence.

If I've missed that discussion, I offer my apologies.

   

[rich pierce]

I never put it together that the butt profile on Doc’s rifle is like many Dutch muskets. Good eyes.

[backsplash75]

Very neat (early) Dutch gun, assuming that it is a fowler since the barrel is over 50 inches long but that furniture would also be at home on some Dutch muskets. Typically those musket barrels are 4' or less, and this one  appears to have been cut back for a nose band and etc. vs stocked to the muzzle and the sling swivel makes me think this may be a composite gun with Dutch musket donor bits. Is there any evidence of a bayonet lug on the barrel? Can we get an overall shot?

As to tang carving on Dutch muskets- here are some typical Dutch tang carving on muskets, keep in mind they didn't have an official pattern gun for a good chunk of the 18th century and the Dutch Republic was more of a confederation of provinces during that time so the guns aren't as consistent as French or English stuff. There is vaguely similar lobed tang carving on some French fusil de Chasse specimens too.










French stuff is around that is similar to both Dutch tangs above (my apologies as I don't have great pics of exactly what I am talking about. See tangs shown on Gladysz's French Trade gun in North America on p 53,83,116)










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