ALR Museum Gunmaker: John Shell ( Gun #422)......the 5th in the Museum

[Hurricane ( of Virginia)]

John Shell, a well respected gunsmith, was amongst the rare gunsmiths to number his guns. Here is  #422 which adds significantly to the answer of the question "how many guns did or could a gunsmith make in his career." This is the 5th John Shell gun in the Museum and offers one a chance to see and evaluate change over time. If you know of any other John Shell guns, please inform us so we can add them to the exhibit.

Here is the URL:

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=15731.0

Comments please.

The Museum Committee

[SuperCracker]

Here is  #422 which adds significantly to the answer of the question "how many guns did or could a gunsmith make in his career."

Curious, is there any evidence that he started at 1?  My first inclination (unless he was in an area he had lived throughout his apprenticeship) would be that they may start at some arbitrary number.

No one would want the 5th rifle somebody ever made. I would think.

[Hurricane ( of Virginia)]

The earliest in the Library is #53. Have not heard from anyone about others but there must be some? Anybody???


#1. Not sure I know this to be true and thus would welcome remarks from others, but after 7 years or so as apprentice #1 could look pretty good if it would be the first he signed on his own. Comments welcome. We have seen many fine known master /apprentice relationships with wonderful; guns ( unnumbered. Do we know whether an apprentice had to acquire a level off skill before his obligation was discharged or was it only time or both??

Hurricane

[Bill-52]

SuperCracker,

You raise a good point -- we all assume John Shell started at #1 when numbering his rifles.  Furthermore, we don't know if he started numbering his rifles when at the end of his apprenticeship or when he was truly on his own.

Hoverer, a couple observations:
- With respect to the quality of his earlier rifles, John Shell likely apprenticed under his father, Martin Shell, a Dauphin County master gunsmith in his own right.  I doubt Martin would have allowed any substandard product by his son to go out the shop door, whether as an apprentice or independent gunsmith.
- I've been told of, but have not seen personally, two of John Shell's rifles numbered in single digits.

Given that John Shell died in 1875, #422 dated 1869 was likely one of his last rifles, a valuable addition to the Museum.

Bill