English? Jaeger with Ketland lock.

[Bob Roller]

 Nice looking old lock with the linked mainspring.Nice looking old gun as well.

Bob Roller

[Pukka Bundook]

Hello Joe & all,

I have been looking and mulling over this gun for a while now, and am No authority, but think the stock and carving have a somehow an early N American look to them.
What I Think may be the case, is an earlier (1750-60 Brandenburg) piece possibly with a broken or missing lock, was re-stocked with original furniture and had a 'new' lock fitted at that time. 
There is a "However" though!  The drum conversion to percussion appears Continental. 
I think we can all think up scenarios of how this alteration could possibly take place, but as we should deal with facts, I'll leave it at that.
For what it's worth, I have a Germanic smoothbore, Zella marked barrel, (Near Suhl)  that has very similar carving behind the tang.  This gun appears largely from the 1760-70 period, with an earlier (17th C) barrel.

[Feltwad]

Enclosed which may be of some help are images of Locks by Ketland & Co notice that these locks have early type of mainspring with no sturrip although they have roller fizzens
Feltwad


Notice the mainspring


Proof Marks  Question Birmingham or their privet proof

[JV Puleo]

Nice locks... on both guns.
However, it is extremely unlikely that any of the Ketlands ever made a lock. By the time TK Sr. arrived on the scene, virtually all the locks used in the B'ham trade were made in the lock making towns of Wendsbury, Darleston and, to a lesser extent, West Bromwich. Lock making was one of the most specialized aspects of the trade with no one person making any more than a part or two while other specialists assembled them.

As far as the WK firm is concerned, by 1812 they offered a wide variety of locks from "common fence gunlocks hardened & engraved" for 17/ per dozen to the very best locks at 145/ per dozen so the best locks were 8-1/2 times as expensive as the cheapest. The cheap locks didn't have internal or external bridles much less stirrups on the mainspring and a roller frizzen spring. They probably utilized more than one supplier but, with only one exception (and that is a guess) I've never seen a way to identify who made them. I have observed that better quality locks usually have the K name engraved on them while the name is stamped on the cheaper locks. Best quality WK locks have the name engraved in Roman letters like those on the lock at the beginning of this thread.

[Hlbly]

Had a few beers to steady my hands and removed the barrel. No markings at all, but you can see there is two lock bolt grooves which means this is a reused barrel. There is only one lock bolt hole in this gun, so the lock change theory has been completely debunked also, the sideplate was made for this gun. This gun is as built using old and new parts. The lock settles the when, now the question is where.




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[Mike Brooks]

The lock settles the when, now the question is where.

I'd say some backward little burg around Brandenburg. Or at least that's where the stocker learned his trade.

[Carl Young]

Is there something in the transverse groove in the bottom of the barrel channel, where the front lock bolt passes through? Maybe some kind of liner or reinforcement? It looks like something more than just a hole in the wood to me...

Thanks for the neat photos!
Carl

[Hlbly]

Nothing there but a hole for the bolt.