Belgian Flintlock Trade Musket with Native Applied Red Paint

.72 caliber. 51.5" pinned round barrel with baluster turned rings at the breech. SN: NSN. Bright finish, brass furniture, hardwood stock with applied red paint. Unmarked except for a Liege "E/LG/*" in an oval proof on the barrel, the number "45" and initials "GC" at the left breech and a deep, indistinguishable touch mark on the lock under the pan. Crudely executed flint lock appears to be in original flint configuration. The massive trade gun is 87.25" in overall length and is a cheap, highly stylized gun that harkens back to the form of the Brown Bess with the similarly shaped lock, shield shaped thumb piece at the wrist and the baluster turned rings at the breech. Simple brass trade gun furniture includes a flat sideuplate, flat buttplate, simple flat triggerguard with rudimentary finials at its ends and two round ramrod thimbles and an entry pipe that also resemble India Pattern Brown Bess furniture. The overly heavy stock has an exaggerated perch belly profile with that makes the 1.5" wide butt look more like a paddle than a gun butt, reminiscent of some Dutch muskets from the 1600s. The strong resemblance to the India Pattern Bess in the furniture and features suggests the gun was destined for trade in an area where English traders would have been common 100 or more years earlier. While guns of this style are most often associated with the African trade of the late 19th and early 20th century, the consignor notes that trade guns painted red in a similar fashion have been noted in the camps of Alaskan Natives. An interesting, late production trade gun.

The Collection of Larry Ness