lock initials????

[backsplash75]

I suspect the initials are those of the lock maker - who was almost certainly not the gunmaker. Gun lock making was a specialty trade by the middle of the 18th century - and probably a lot earlier (though we lack documentation going back that far).

Great to hear from you Joe.

I agree that the initials are the lock maker. The are definitely not the initials of the rifle stocker, I know who that was, as the barrel is signed.

I'm curious about your book.

Kent

Unfortunately, the book is on hold until I can get back into the National Archives. I found a great deal of new material in the British Archives last year but I have to follow it up and the material I need is in Philadelphia, New York and Atlanta, all three of which I may have to visit.

The good part is that I've found some very interesting information - some of which I'm sure will upset some people. As George Neumann once said to me..."I know that's true but if you say it they'll be hanging you in effigy". Strangely enough, DeWitt made the same comment.

As to gun lock making in America...my reasons for doubting it was ever done in anything like a commercial sense (which is not to say the no one ever made a gun lock) has as much to do with economics and materials as it does with observation of existing examples. Frankly, I feel that drawing conclusions from observation very risky. The antique arms world is full this - often based on a long previous conclusions drawn from sketchy evidence and sanctified by repetition. However, I freely admit that my interest is English guns. What material I've collected on continental types is peripheral...but, one need only look at the plaintive advertisements placed in Philadelphia and New York newspapers at the beginning of the Revolution, looking for any "mechanic" who might be capable of making a gun lock (like locksmiths and clock makers) to grasp that it was not a commonly seen skill.

Joe,
I am looking forward to your book here too, even if it pushes a few lock dates later than assumed. 

As a point, we know several American gunsmiths made their own locks as well as used imported locks, likely a budgetary and supply issue more than anything else. Please keep an eye peeled for anything that might be an American export pattern rifle lock in the Brit stuff you are looking through.

Moravian Gun Making 1 has a nice quote showing everything in the mix (price variations omitted for brevity).

p33 1767 May:

Quote

    In Stock in the Gunstocking Shop...1 finished rifle lock by Albrecht...1 English lock....1 Do...1 German lock...4 Do....2 English do...

To the economic point- the American made Albrecht lock listed above is more expensive than all of the imported ones, it was valued at a pound, the next English lock 15 shillings, then English is 10 shillings, German lock 15 shillings, cheapest locks are 8 shillings 6 pence.   One pound was divided into 20 shillings. One shilling was divided into 12 pennies.

[JV Puleo]

I should add that there is an article coming up in the next issue of Man at Arms on the arms procured by the Town of Boston. It refers to some muskets purchased by the town and ostensibly made by Hugh Orr in the late 17th century. After they had been in service it was noted that the locks were very poor and the question is raised as to what was wrong with them. This is the earliest primary document I have seen regarding an American-made gun lock and I wonder if we can be 100% certain that he did make them or that he acquired some cheap English locks. Fifty years later the Swedish industrial spy, Reinhold Angerstein, reports on the price of gunlocks in England and how the cheapest were sent to America.

[backsplash75]

snip


I surely hope someone does that research someday.  If my theory is proven false, I will happily stand corrected.

no time better than now to start, at least we can begin assembling known maker stamps. In this thread we have three vaguely "Siler" looking American rifle used locks with these initials:

IB
HB
WD WL(the example you provided, please clarify if that is indeed an L)

[JV Puleo]

There is also the possibility that we are seeing a "made for export" product. I know this was the case with British-made locks, certainly by the 1740s and perhaps earlier. We tend to underestimate how sophisticated 18th century trade was but there is no reason to think that if there was a market in America for gun parts, the makers would not have supplied what that marked wanted. We need to ask ourselves "who used rifles on the continent? Was it common in the general population? I very much doubt it...Hunting was always, at least since before the introduction of gunpowder, a pastime reserved to the land owning aristocracy. It may have been more common in southern Germany and the area of Eastern Europe the Moravians came from (which is now in the Czech Republic) but it's important to note who the European users of rifles were. My guess is that most rifle shooters did not come from the same social class as early Pennsylvania settlers. If that is the case, we should consider the idea that suppliers of gun parts made them to suit the taste and pocket book of the potential buyers.

[backsplash75]

CS,

Thanks for taking the time to check out the lock. This is very interesting to me, on a number of levels.

What features about the lock lead you to the conclusion that it might possibly be American made? In your opinion, was the installation of the bushing in bridle to make up for wear to the tumbler pivot pin and the hole in the bridle? This rifle has obviously been fired many times given the blown out touchhole, so you would expect wear in bridle.

Kindig, who wasn't always correct, came to the conclusion that locks on most rifles were imported. I'm assuming the initials are those of the person who made the lock. I know for sure that they are not the initials of the rifle stocker.

I've looked for component matching marks on the various internal lock components but thus far I cannot detect any.

Kent

I have come to the conclusion that these locks were made in the USA.  I am not an expert on anything but I do know that I have NEVER seen the classic 'Germanic' lock (found on American longrifles, smooth/rifles, fowlers, and pistols) on a European gun. I have studied these locks and I own five of them.  I have also made molds from an original flint one from a George Shroyer rifle.  I will be very confident of this until I see some valid documents proving otherwise. 

cshirsch,
This stamp is inside what appears to be a 3rd Quarter of the 18th century round Dutch VOC musket lock. The barrel on the piece has Amsterdam marks, but the barrel isn't necessarily by the same hand as the lock.




if the membership here pools info and we can come up with a known stamp database we may be able to iron the origins of some of these locks out! 

[WESTbury]

Question for anybody, was difference in price in the 1780-1800 time period between single and double bridle locks?

[rich pierce]

Kent, I’m thinking that best locks for rifles had many refinements including a fly (essential for set triggers), internal and external bridles, and some blind screw holes. At the other end of the spectrum were bridleless locks used on some trade guns. It seems lock prices varied widely so in between locks may have internal and external bridles but no fly, no blind screw holes, and generally less refinement.

[JV Puleo]

Question for anybody, was difference in price in the 1780-1800 time period between single and double bridle locks?

I can answer that for the 1750s and for 1812...in 1812 the cheapest locks sold by the K's were priced at 25 shillings per dozen. The most expensive were 145 shilling per dozen. I can also work out what the exchange was at the time but all that information is at home and I'm in the office. It is worthy of note that much of what we think of as early features continued on to the very end of the flintlock era - the differences were in price much more than mechanical sophistication.

Here's my transcription of the wholesale price list sent to Henry Upson in the summer of 1812. The prices are relative high because the the value of the £ was at the lowest it reached in the 19th century in that year. After the War of 1812 - when the £ was worth more, the prices dropped slightly.

I've never seen the cheapest locks on rifles or, if I have, I've always thought it was a replacement. Generally, rifles were so much more expensive that better quality locks were used.

[WESTbury]

Thanks Joe, appreciate you posting this.

After I posted my question, I dug out the 2011 issue of MAA having your article concerning the Ketlands. Everyone with an interest in this should read it.

I've seen Ketland single bridle locks on imported fowlers having post 1813 Birmingham Proofs. I would suppose that the German lock exporters had a similar pricing structure to remain competitive. That could push up the early dates for some rifles, fowlers, and pistols.

Kent

[JV Puleo]

That is exactly my point. The features of the lock were dictated by the selling price. Those late K export locks were made for sale in the US. You almost never see one in Britain* because there simply was no market for inexpensive fowlers. There was a market for inexpensive pocket pistols and there are thousands surviving.

Keeping in mind that there were no exports from England between 1774 and early 1793, it seems unreasonable to think that the continental suppliers didn't do everything in their power to fill the trade void. They were every bit as enterprising and as intelligent as modern merchants.

*I know of 1...on an export quality pistol marked to a county Yeomanry company...significant because the marking places it in Britain in period. So much of this stuff has traveled back and forth in the last 50 years that finding an example there hasn't much significance unless there is supporting evidence. That said, the inexpensive K pistols and fowlers we see at virtually every gun show are still unknown to British collectors.

And...I transcribed that from the hand written price list - which I own. Parts of it have been published before (but not the lock page) without my permission and, in at least one case, misinterpreted. The folks that "borrowed" it didn't have the rest of the Upson correspondence ... only a weak photocopy of the price list. I can say that the list was written out in August of 1812.

Here's a "best" quality K lock - with a sliding safety. I think the initials, BB may be Benjamin Brazier - the first of the Brazier lock makers who were so prominent in the percussion era.

[WESTbury]

Thanks Joe, for your very informative post.

Kent

[WESTbury]

Many thanks to all of those that responded to this post. I think quite a bit of informative information was made available for everyone.

Kent

[spgordon]

Frankly, I feel that drawing conclusions from observation very risky. The antique arms world is full this - often based on a long previous conclusions drawn from sketchy evidence and sanctified by repetition.

This is perfectly put. Thanks.

As to gun lock making in America...my reasons for doubting it was ever done in anything like a commercial sense (which is not to say the no one ever made a gun lock)

The specificity of Joe's remark is key: "in anything like a commercial sense." Which, as Joe says, "is not to say that no one ever made a gun lock": the surviving object posted above suggests that Albrecht made one in Bethlehem in the 1750s, and we know from his own recollections that in 1810 or so William Henry III joined the workforce at his brother's Philadelphia factory and "forthwith commenced lock making under the instruction of David Maston, a master lockfiler and English workman."

[JV Puleo]

We should also note that Henry was doing this in 1810 and that he employed an English workman to teach the techniques. I'm not sure I was clear in my comment but locks were made in the US for contract muskets. This was a conscious decision on the part of the government to foster gun making for National Defense purposes. It was fully understood that locks could be imported for less than they could be made. The difficulty – virtual impossibility – of getting any significant quantity of American-made locks during the Revolution made it imperative that the skill be developed...but this did not apply to the civilian trade where price was the important factor, hence most (and I would say "all" in a statistical sense) were imported.

Ironically, the steel to make lock parts had to be imported...as late as the 1820s Nathan Starr commented on this saying something like "a material we cannot make". (I have the actual quote somewhere – it was in reference to a cutlass contract for the Navy.) He had to import the steel used to make his sword & saber blades. Much of this came from Germany. England was not the only source. In fact, in the 1750s, England was importing much of its steel from Sweden as well as iron from Russia and Spain. (Most British iron had too much sulfur in it to make steel.) Right through the end of the Civil War the Springfield Armory was importing its steel and barrel iron from England as well as files and other specialized tooling. It probably isn't until the 1870s and the introduction of Bessemer-process steel that the US became truly self-sufficient.

[cshirsch]

CS,

Thanks for taking the time to check out the lock. This is very interesting to me, on a number of levels.

What features about the lock lead you to the conclusion that it might possibly be American made? In your opinion, was the installation of the bushing in bridle to make up for wear to the tumbler pivot pin and the hole in the bridle? This rifle has obviously been fired many times given the blown out touchhole, so you would expect wear in bridle.

Kindig, who wasn't always correct, came to the conclusion that locks on most rifles were imported. I'm assuming the initials are those of the person who made the lock. I know for sure that they are not the initials of the rifle stocker.

I've looked for component matching marks on the various internal lock components but thus far I cannot detect any.

Kent

I have come to the conclusion that these locks were made in the USA.  I am not an expert on anything but I do know that I have NEVER seen the classic 'Germanic' lock (found on American longrifles, smooth/rifles, fowlers, and pistols) on a European gun. I have studied these locks and I own five of them.  I have also made molds from an original flint one from a George Shroyer rifle.  I will be very confident of this until I see some valid documents proving otherwise. 

cshirsch,
This stamp is inside what appears to be a 3rd Quarter of the 18th century round Dutch VOC musket lock. The barrel on the piece has Amsterdam marks, but the barrel isn't necessarily by the same hand as the lock.




if the membership here pools info and we can come up with a known stamp database we may be able to iron the origins of some of these locks out! 

I have six or seven of them so I will photograph each stamp and send them.  I would like to see photos of the Dutch lock you posted.  Please

[backsplash75]

I have six or seven of them so I will photograph each stamp and send them.  I would like to see photos of the Dutch lock you posted.  Please

This is the musket lock

[JV Puleo]

British Ordnance Dog Lock...the plate is marked by Humphrey Pickfatt and dated 1711. The lock and barrel are now on a cheap militia musket stocked in cherry, probably made in the 1790s to satisfy the requirements of the first Militia Act. I interpret these marks as further evidence that locks were generally made by specialist lock filers...if they were made by the gunmaker whose name is on them why would they need internal marking - and why are the initials virtually never the same as the gunmaker?

This lock originally used 3 side nails - only two are used in it's current configuration.