Early Flintlock Northwest Trade Gun by Wilson

.60 caliber. 44" pinned three-stage octagon to round barrel with baluster turned rings at the transition. SN: NSN. Bright finish, brass furniture, walnut stock. Slightly rounded reconverted flint lock with pronounced teat at rear shows light engraving at the tail and is marked "WILSON" under the pan. Skillfully reconverted with pan almost impossible to recognize as having been replaced, but the lower quality of the completely correct pattern rounded swan neck and frizzen, as well as the aged modern screws are tell tale signs of the work. Top flat of barrel engraved "MINORIES LONDON" with the upper left angled breech stamped with pre-1813 style raised London commercial proof marks in a sunken oval and the initial "RW". Three-screw serpent side plate with the rear screw being functional indicative of earlier production guns, moderately sized brass triggerguard a precursor to the later large iron guards, nailed flat brass buttplate. This example has a particularly "Roman-nosed" profile to the stock with a wide 1.625" butt, suggesting it is an early production gun. While most Wilson marked guns are marked in an arc on the tail of the lock, at least a few were marked as this one is, with two in the collection of the Museum of the Fur Trade. Wilson, his sons and later his grandsons would provide guns to the various fur trading companies for roughly a century, from the 1730s through the 1830s and is largely responsible for classic pattern known as the Northwest Trade Gun today.

The Collection of Larry Ness