New Members Abroad ( International interest in the American Kentucky Longrifle)

[Hurricane ( of Virginia)]

Recently communicating with " Steef" to display his Sell and other longrifle, I learned the following. Your comments about and knowledge of this are welcome, please.

I purchade  the two rifle's from a collector in de south west of the netherlands ,this collector only collect american rifles as i do, he purchade  the rifle's direct from the usa some time ago.
You ask me if there is a international intrest for these rifle's ,the anwser is yes because in the Netherlands,Germany,Belgium and some scandinavian country's have allot of intrest in Blackpowder shooting and collecting of pre 1900 weapons and American and europeen history ,whe organize westernweekends ,trapperweekends etc etc , i  am a trapper also in those weekends with my rangetipi,fur,woodstove,handmade clothes from buckskin etc ,these weekends are very popular.
You can imagine that for the trappers a Kentucky rifle is very intresting to have and there are not many availble outhere.

Here a small impression

 

Best regards

Steef

[AeroE]

Weekend before last a reasonably local gunbuilder mentioned that one of the rifles on his table was going to Germany on the following Monday.

I knew there was interest in parts of Europe, but the depth and breadth is hard to judge from here, through a keyhole to boot.

[Bob Roller]

My experience with the Germans has been very good and they DO seek out quality work be it a complete rifle or locks and triggers. I sent most of my work to them over a period of time because they wouldn't let $2 stop the project and didn't understand that attitude. If you look at their magazines,Visier and Deutsches Waffen Journal (DWJ) are the two I am familiar with,you will look in vain for clunker guns and there are no ads seeking them either. It's a different game altogether. My locks and triggers have been seen in both of these publications over the years and once on the cover of DWJ. It was a flintlock pistol with one of my Bailes locks that had been engraved and all tricked out as a presentation piece for some Navy Officer of theirs.

Bob Roller

[art riser]

The interest in the old and new is quite strong worldwide as evidenced by a recent post on the Contemporary Maker's site.

On Jan 31, 2012 we had visitors to the blog from:

Bulgaria

Sarajevo

Italy

Turkey

Spain

Hungary

Australia

Canada

Slovakia

Norway

France

Germany

India

Chech Republic

New Zealand

Ireland

Ukraine

Poland

Finland

Thailand

Egypt

Philippines

Australia

Romania

United Kingdom

Mexico

Brazil

Argentina

Macao

as well as 49 states and the District of Columbia

[realtorone]

I just returned from the shows(Show of Shows & Great Eastern)at Louisville Ky this past weekend.I set up there every year,and you would not believe the number of European buyers.It seems to be more each year,and they are buying multiple antique guns to take back to their home country.

[timM]

As a serviceman stationed in Germany in the mid 70's I was a bit surprised at the amount of interest these folks had in our history.

I had joined a German black powder club that meet regularly and shot on one of the smaller American ranges. These guys would dress up in their interpretation of period clothing, all different periods depending on their interest and shoot Italian replicas.

I have great memories of those times and remember how graciously they accepted me as the lone American among them.  I also recall that I found their typical perspective of our history pretty hilarious.  Fuel for some great discussions.  tim

[Bob Roller]

I was a member of the OGCA in the 1960's when the shows were held in Columbus,Ohio and there were always European buyers there looking for fine old guns to take back home with them. They had plenty of money and paid well for quality guns.
Today,major classic cars are in their sights as well. Recently,a one of a kind Duesenberg sold for $10.4 million to a very wealthy European.
Wouldn't it be nice to be able to write a check and have the bank bounce instead of the check?

Bob Roller

[T*O*F]

Long before this board existed, I had participating members from 26 different countries on my old MLML list.  The Nordic countries were well represented both in gunbuilding and reenacting.  They reenact both their and our country's history.  A couple of them made the trip to Friendship for a couple of years and were made honorary members of the WidowMakers.

They built their own guns for the most part.  Bookie made "DeathWind" for one of them.  Magnus Wiborg made matchlocks completely from scratch, including the barrels and locks.  I have pictures of many of them in period garb which they made, both ours and theirs.

[GrampaJack]

In the mid 80s when we held the OGCA meetings in Cleveland I met 2 fellas from England. They were actively buying British double guns that had been imported in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  There were a ton of them most being highly engraved Damascus hammer guns and they bought every one they could find.  I believe they were taking them back for restoration and resale. Very nice guys. I have pretty much lost track of them in the last 10 years but I wish I would have listened to them and bought up some of those $50 "clunkers". 

[JV Puleo]

I'm just back from the UK where I attended the 1st Bristol Arms Fair... an new show that, if it continues, could be one of the best in Europe. I know at least three major dealers there who specialize in American arms and there were several others who had various American arms for sale. I didn't see much in the way of muzzle loaders though. The emphasis seems to be Colt/Winchester/American Civil War. The friend I was staying with is one of the premier experts on the US Cavalry...

Antique Arms collecting is very international and there are just as many foreign collectors for American stuff as there are collectors here who covet great English and continental arms.