FORT CHARTRES HORN SKETCH R. GRIDER ???

[dhorne]

Does anybody know anything about this horn? or the sketch. I got this Xerox copy quite a few years ago, it has been coped many times so it is very hard to read. I know it is a sketch done by R. Grider but the date is illegible. I scanned it and this is the best I could do.
Under the rectangle scene- Fort Niagara on Lake Ontario.
Under the horn- Rufas A Grider, ? probably a place name, ? probably the date.
On the right- ? J. J. Known in Chicago Ill. as the oldest relic of the State of Illinois Fort Chartres was located on the Illinoise River and built by the French The horn belongs to F. Gunther? of Chicago. J. J. Fort Chartres Illinois May 4th 1766
So to begin with Fort Chartres is on the Mississippi River not the Illinois but thats OK. There is absolutely no way to even guess if this horn dates from 1766 or 1876.  I started trying to figure out the significance of May 4th 1766 but so far on luck. It is interesting that John Jennings an important British trader showed up at Fort de Chartres in early 1766 so maybe he could be J. J. Who knows? And Grider was known to take artistic license with his sketches so maybe he just dreamed it up. And that is one of the goofiest looking deer I've seen on a horn, looks like a giraffe with two sets of horns.
So anybody know anything about this or willing to take a guess?

[vanu]

In 1942 the original horn was noted as being in the collection of Charles F. Gunther of Chicago (Granscay # 485).

Grider did not handle each horn depicted, but often reworked drawings made by owners or others. For example the Benjamin Fuller horn (Granscay #360) was noted as being in in Chicago in 1889, but the image was drawn by someone other than the owner, supplied to Grider - who in-turn did a watercolor (which by the way includes a vignette of Fort Chartres!) that now resides in the New York Public Library's collection of Rufus Grider powder horn watercolors.

So given the script, and the notation of "Illinois" in 1766?  I suspect this horn is either a centennial made piece or an early horn with a later inscription (which was not  uncommon during the Centennial) - the latter is more likely the case in my opinion.

Bruce

[dhorne]

Outstanding, Thank you.

[vanu]

dhorne,

You bet! Also, i must add that the Fuller (from Mansfield, Conn) horn had no reference to Fort Chartres, but rather a wonderful, lonely soldiers - poem...;-)

Bruce

[vanu]

correction...Timothy Fuller, not Benjamin sorry...

[Panzerschwein]

I grew up 30 minutes for Fort Charters.

So the horn isn’t from there?

[Mike_StL]

In 1766 Fort de Chartres had been in British possession for about a year.  Captain Stirling and the 42nd Royal Highlanders took over the Fort in October of 1765 and renamed the Fort, Fort Cavendish.  That name never really stuck and as the residents of the area became more settled in, the name was Fort Chartres (Charters).  I'm not sure when the 77th arrived to relieve the 42nd.  That could be the significance of the date on the horn.