Smoothbore Equipment?

[Capt. Jas.]

I found this painting of a guy in the 18th century with a smoothbore. He has a small bag of shot on the ground and looks like he was using the broken pipe as a measure.

I am trying to find out what's in his hat and if it pertains to the shooting of the gun.

Any ideas??
[url] http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/87704.html[/url]

 

[rabjr]

:haha: Looks like a hat full of shrooms to me...maybe to go with cooking the birds?

 

[Stumpkiller]

Looks like mice and shredded wheat on my screen.

 

[roundball]

I found this painting of a guy in the 18th century with a smoothbore. He has a small bag of shot on the ground and looks like he was using the broken pipe as a measure.

I am trying to find out what's in his hat and if it pertains to the shooting of the gun.

Any ideas??

If you zoom it up it becomes clear that they're mushrooms, flat heads down with stems sticking up in the air...and I see the flinter is a lefty

 

[mazo kid]

Roundball, thats what I make it to be also.

 

[Croppy Boy]

Capt. Jas.
If you move the slider on the bottom of the picture, it zooms in. It looks like his bag includes an owl and a magpie!

 

[Capt. Jas.]

So I am not going crazy! I saw mushrooms also.
This comic painting is not intending to put this man in a good light. He has taken every kind of animal but the ones to be hunted. He is dressed to go to court and not hunting. He is evidently under the influece.... of maybe mushrooms??

I put this on another board and a poster has seen this painting in person. He says there are two wrapped packages with his "kill" and they are labled "coarse powder" and "fine powder"

 

[Capt. Jas.]

An added thought.... Could he be wadding with those mushrooms as well as "partaking" of them? All his other materials to shoo the gun are clearly shown.

 

[Croppy Boy]

Looks like he shot a mule as well :grin:

 

[dgold]

Well, I'm glad you cleared that up. I had for a while the thoughts of you guys out all duded up for a hunt. The clothes on this guy don't make him look like a typical farmer hunting to put some food on his table.

 

[bart_anastasi]

Well, I'm glad you cleared that up. I had for a while the thoughts of you guys out all duded up for a hunt. The clothes on this guy don't make him look like a typical farmer hunting to put some food on his table.

Well he might not be a farmer in the sense you mean.

A Virginia gentleman or property owner of the time would dress more or less like this.

People of the time I read like Washington trying to out British the British. Always in the best clothes they could afford.

Think about hunts today in England at Manor houses where a line of 10 Guns is garunted 500 birds minimum for a mornings hunt. Breakfast at the Manor with Tea, lunch in the field with each shooter a designated gun handler, Lunch in the field and, Dinner at the Manor with drinks for after.

I understand that when you show up for one of these shoots (which can cost around 1,000 lbs a day) you are meet as you arrive in your car, your guns are cleaned and checked be a employee of the Hunt.

You are assigned your personal gun holder person for the shoot who loads your double's for you. At the end of the day the Gun person cleans your shot gun's and puts them in your trunck in your car for the ride home.

These fellas may not dress up quite that well but almost.

 

[paulvallandigham]

That is not a shot pouch, but a tobacco pouch between his legs, with the pipe. Its only recently that loose pipe tobacco has been stored in rectangular shaped " wallets". Clay pipes were made and often found in " public Houses, or taverns". For sanitary sakes, the end of the pipe was bitten, or broken off by each new smoker, until the pipe stem got to short, and the mouth began to get that burning taste. Then a new pipe was purchased. YOu can still buy long stemmed clay pipes at pipe shops here. You can also find "Churchwarden " long-stemmed pipes, made from briar, and the stem from a synthetic. They were very fashionable for women to smoke in the late 18th century, both in England, France, and the colonies.

Gentlemen had their own pipes, also made of clay, and later from briar. Clay was much more commonly used in the colonies, because briar was not locally available and importing pipes from England was expensive. He might have a good briar pipe at his home, but it would not be taken on a hunt.

 

[Capt. Jas.]

Paul,

While I enjoyed the lesson on pipes, you are incorrect in this application.
The pouch is clearly marked "SHOT" when you use the the magnification. Also, one guy on another board viewed the original over Christmas and the flat packets with the birds that are unreadable over the net even with magnification read "Coarse Powder" and "Fine Powder".
The pipe in the painting has shot pellets in it and around it suggesting that since it was used down to the end, it was seeing further service as a measure.

 

[dgold]

Well he might not be a farmer in the sense you mean.

A Virginia gentleman or property owner of the time would dress more or less like this.

People of the time I read like Washington trying to out British the British. Always in the best clothes they could afford.

Think about hunts today in England at Manor houses where a line of 10 Guns is garunted 500 birds minimum for a mornings hunt. Breakfast at the Manor with Tea, lunch in the field with each shooter a designated gun handler, Lunch in the field and, Dinner at the Manor with drinks for after.

I understand that when you show up for one of these shoots (which can cost around 1,000 lbs a day) you are meet as you arrive in your car, your guns are cleaned and checked be a employee of the Hunt.

You are assigned your personal gun holder person for the shoot who loads your double's for you. At the end of the day the Gun person cleans your shot gun's and puts them in your trunck in your car for the ride home.

These fellas may not dress up quite that well but almost.

Good point. I may not be hunting in this style very often, but it would be nice to do it up at least one time in this short life. Sort of like staying at the Paris Hilton for a night---and no jokes please, I mean the actual hotel. :rotf:

 

[Capt. Jas.]

Even though he would have been "a fowling" in what we might consider fancy clothes, they were not as fancy as this guy is pictured. He has lace cuffs, etc. and that was not part of the "English country dress" that even the French copied.

This guy is in England. Even today a driven grouse shoot would be in wool vest, coat and tie (what we call today British sporting attire) but not in the city boy finery he has on.

 

[bart_anastasi]

Good point. I may not be hunting in this style very often, but it would be nice to do it up at least one time in this short life. Sort of like staying at the Paris Hilton for a night---and no jokes please, I mean the actual hotel. :rotf:

Well not for nothing if I were going to do this a trip or family vacation it could work.

I used to look up the data on the Holland and Holland web site.
Yes the price was a lot (for one day) but for what you got not bad once in a lifetime.
You can make bed time arraingments at a number of local inns and hotels.

Also these shoots will provide (some of them any way) shopping for the wife and kids as a diversion for the rest of the family.

The only problem I imagine is guns and what you wear. You can probably pick up a set of guns maintained at the Manor for shooting by not native shooters or a local gun store.

Certantly you would not want to show up in a camo outfit. And you wold need to understand the rules of the game as practiced by the locals. No hooting and hollering on the line etc.

As I understand it from the adds they also have a occasional open position when someone has to cancel in advance. These openings are available to the right person-equipment-desireable.