H.E. Leman Northwest Trade Gun

.58 caliber. 36" pinned, three-stage octagon to round barrel with baluster turned rings at the transition, slightly swamped at the muzzle. SN: NSN. Bright finish, brass and iron furniture, walnut stock. Round-tailed reconverted flint lock mark "H.E. LEMAN" in a vertical arc at the rear and with Leman's variant of the Hudson's Bay Company's "{Tombstone Fox}" mark under the pan, with the letters "PA" for Pennsylvania, rather than HBC's "EB" mark. Cock, pan, frizzen, spring and external lock screws are all modern replacements. Top flat of barrel marked "H.E. LEMAN" in an arc and "LANCASTER, PA" in a single straight line, with post-1813 Birmingham proof marks on the angled left flat. Produced in the form of the classic Wilson and Barnett Northwest Trade Guns, Leman used imported barrels from Birmingham and constructed a gun of somewhat higher quality than his English contemporaries. The classic "serpent" side plate, over sized iron triggerguard and simple, flat brass buttplate were retained, as were the corrugated brass ramrod pipes. The raised carved moldings around the breech plug tang, rear of the lock mortise and the tail of the counterpane were also retained, but the lock itself was of somewhat better quality as was the overall fit and finish of the guns. An inexpensive but logical improvement was the addition of a small sheet brass piece near the tip of the forend to reduce the potential for the stock to split. Leman entered into the Northwest gun trade in 1842 with a Bureau of Indian Affairs contract that would last 18 years and resulted in the delivery of 9,000 guns of this pattern by the maker. Considering the huge quantities of these guns produced and delivered by makers like Barnett over many decades, the production of Leman Northwest guns was relatively modest, making them somewhat uncommon on the collector market.

The Collection of Larry Ness