Another "assembled" militia musket

[JV Puleo]

The "identify this musket" thread got me to thinking I'd post some photos of this one. It's straight out of the attic in Smithfield, RI, turned in to the local police dept by an elderly lady. They have an arrangement with a retired former department armorer (who has an ffl) and is an old friend of mine.

This one appears to have been made from old French parts with a much older continental lock. The use of a M1861 hammer suggests that either the conversion was done very late or, more likely, it simply replaced the earlier,likely blacksmith made, hammer. Oddly enough, all the parts on this one do date from the Revolution or earlier but the style of the stock, which is quite well made, is more in keeping with 1800 than 1776. The barrel has been shortened, the middle band is missing and the front band pushed back to where I expect the stock broke.








My apologies for the poor photos. I hadn't the energy to take them up to the photo studio so I just shot them on the shop floor.

[backsplash75]

JVP,
Interesting parts bin special! Any chance we can get a better shot of the lock? Any markings? Looks like it may be a Potzdam lock, or one of the unmarked Liege knockoffs of same ca. 1777.
thanks!

[JV Puleo]

Here you go...pardon the table of my milling machine. The screws are stuck and I don't have the time to be fussing with them now so I wasn't able to get the inside of the lock. No markings on the face that I can see but it may be marked on the inside.




I find these assembled muskets very interesting. I've probably had 20 or 30 of them over the years...none of which I'd claim dated from the Revolution.

[ntqlvr1948]

The trigger guard and lower barrel band are definitely from a 1763-68 Charleville musket

[JV Puleo]

I think the side plate, barrel and butt plate are as well.

[backsplash75]

Good stuff! These unmarked Potzdam style locks/guns show up in America (one similar lockplate was recovered at Point of Fork Arsenal in Va). It is tempting to link them with this:

Moller V1

MUSKETS CONTAINING GERMANIC COMPONENTS 045.9
Paul Wentworth, a British agent in Amsterdam, wrote William Eden in
London on October 21, 1777 reporting arms which had been acquired by a German, Johannes Philip Mercklé,
 in Liège and transported to Amsterdam. Included in this list were “3,000 fusils of the Prussion Model,”
“2,000 lighter fusils,” and “5,000 Spare Gun Locks.” He also stated that Mercklé and Silas
Deane's brother, Simon Deane, were to sail with these arms to America in a
new ship, believed to have been named Christine. This ship, carrying 4,000
gun locks and other arms, sailed on January 26, 1778, bound for Nantes,
France.

for comparison the normal Potzdam markings