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'TOWER PROOF' stamp

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in the form of a curved arc at the rear end of a probable Brown Bess musket.

A contact of mine in the Republic of Ireland is thinking about buying this gun, which is in a very poor state and currently in France. Mr David Minshall has kindly provided an opinion as to its actual identity, but the OP still has no firm answer to his question of the stamp.

What I know about British long arms of that period could be writ in large letters on the eyelash of an angel, so I'm appealing to the audience here to help him out.

His original post can be found on gunboards.com under the British arms forum, with a reasonably good image of the area around the lock.

TIA

tac
 
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Hi TAC,
I have never seen any example of a military Brown bess musket with "Tower Proof" engraved on the lock. There should be proof marks on the barrel and I suspect it may not be British made. It also does not look like a Brown Bess but the single photo is not very useful. My first impression is a cheap bess knock off for civilian or trade use and possibly made late in the 19th century.

dave
 
Thank tou, Dave - a very useful post. I'll pass it on. From what little I DO know, the cock is not right, and the trigger bow is very reminiscent of a trade gun.

However, this poor old thing is in France, where they don't necessarily have the highest opinion of British-made anything, let alone an antique gun. I suspect that the images are from the vendor's site, so asking about other stamps like barrel proof et al may well be expecting too much.

Thanks again.

tac [all lower case, please note] I am not an abbreviation, just a mispronunciation. :wink:
 
My first impression is a cheap bess knock off for civilian or trade use and possibly made late in the 19th century.

The Belgians were famous for making muskets for the African trade, and of course these had to in some ways resemble guns respected by the customers. It might be one of those if it's mid 19th century. Even today the metal Pashto/Persian metal workers make good copies of guns and have done so for several centuries, for trade and today for actual use. In Afghanistan you can buy good working examples of the AK family..., that were never touched by Communist or Russian hands..., so making a close approximation of a musket wouldn't be that hard.

LD
 
^ This. It seems, from another source over on gunboards.com, that the 'Tower Proof' stamp is all too well-known as mark applied to Belgian frawks.

I thank you for all your help and would like to think that I can be as useful some day to somebody on this forum.

tac
 
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TOWER is, of course, Tower of London. That splendid 11th Century keep that William the Bastard caused to be built.

They assembled muskets there, buying in parts from the numerous workshops that sprang up to fill their requirements. Was Dublin Castle the same for Ireland?

The other possibility for the engraving on the lock tail is a maker's name. So was that for a private regiment put together by some toff?

I really don't know. We should be told :thumbsup: :grin:
 
Squire Robin said:
TOWER is, of course, Tower of London. That splendid 11th Century keep that William the Bastard caused to be built.

They assembled muskets there, buying in parts from the numerous workshops that sprang up to fill their requirements. Was Dublin Castle the same for Ireland?

The other possibility for the engraving on the lock tail is a maker's name. So was that for a private regiment put together by some toff?

I really don't know. We should be told :thumbsup: :grin:

Hi Squire,

There was the "British Ordnance Board" in London who purchased parts/guns for the Regiments station in England. There was the "British Ordnance Board at Plymouth" that did the same thing for the British Navy and Marines.

There was also the "Irish Board of Ordnance" at Dublin Castle. They were responsible for arming/rearming the British Regiments stationed in Ireland. The Irish Parliament had to fund that Ordnance Board, though. In between the FIW and the AWI, over half of the British Army was stationed in Ireland, so their Parliament had to "pick up the tab" to pay for them.

Gus
 
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