Tim C,
Thank you for posting a "Quick Link" or whatever it is called, so folks can easily get to it, including me.
Dan,
Good point about so many fakes being on the market and dating back a long ways even to the Centennial. I wonder that 50 or 100 years from now that some horns that were never intended to be fakes, but just good copies of original horns or styles, will add to the confusion? I'm not suggesting people should not do it, though.
To everyone,
Some things about this article especially caught my attention.
I remember from the early 70's that it was commonly accepted that Period Riflemen scraped their horns thin enough to be translucent so as to easily be able to see how much powder was left when held up to the light. However, not many people were doing that at Friendship or other Primitive Events, even then. Now that the modern day Horner's Guild and other groups have been active for a while, I wonder if that information was accurate and/or if original horns have been found showing this feature?
I have also wondered how in an age when maybe only 1/3 of the populace could read and write, why so many original horns had the owners names on them? The author addresses that to some degree by noting that horns belonging to or were issued to Americans during war time, were sometimes (if not usually) ordered to have the owners’ names inscribed on them so they could be easily returned to the persons issued them after the horns were filled. He pointed out that some of the men who could read and write and could do the work, scrimshanded the names for those who could not read and write.
It always made sense to me that when the Militia (including Riflemen) were called up for a campaign or raiding party, they would not always have enough powder in their horns or run through it and would need the horns refilled. This suggests to me that at least on military campaign, they would not have attached their horns to their pouch or maybe taken off the horns attached to their pouch and slung them from a cord while serving on such campaigns?
This leads to the question of was it more common to have the horn slung separately from the pouch or attached to the pouch. Unfortunately, there are so few original hunting pouches from the 18th century, we can’t tell by them. There are not many good period drawings or paintings of Riflemen and on most we really can’t tell if the horn was slung separately. I realize that people would have hung their horn whatever way they wished in civilian life and wondered what the pro’s and con’s were of each way of carrying their horns? Having the horn attached to the pouch may have been the preferred way for a frontiersman to carry the horn in case of when surprised or something going on when he slept and thus made it easier to gather his gear in a hurry? However, in hostile territory, they may have slept with their pouch and horn on their body?
Something else I’ve wondered about is are there examples of horns extant or documentation that shows what style of horns were made by professional Horners and sold as common horns “to the trade” in different time periods? I’m wondering if the folks in the Modern Horner’s Guild or groups interested in Powder Horns have been able to identify or describe such horns where that information was not available 40 or 30 years ago?
Any information would be very much appreciated.
Gus
