Survival rate of historical firearms vs other historical artifacts

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Here is an observation of mine. I was born in NYC circa 1950. Growing up Long Island NY I remember family trips to Sagamore Hill National Historic Site and the summer home of Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States. I remember as a kid being mesmerized by the endless display of guns and trophies. The house was adorned with all of Roosevelt's mounts and guns, really nice guns. Looking at that same national site today all of the guns are gone, the mounts remain but not a gun to be seen anymore. Roosevelt was a pretty firm lover of Winchester rifles and the NRA did a story on a few of his rifles but there are no longer any to be seen at the Summer White House on LI NY. Why? Good gun museums seem to be getting scarce or is it just me?

Ron

I know the .38 Colt New Army & Navy that was salvaged from the USS Maine and carried by TR in Cuba was on display at Sagamore Hill and stolen. Perhaps that is why the other displays were removed. The Colt actually was stolen twice, and recovered twice.
 
Maybe? Beats me but that house was loaded with displayed guns. No clue when they went away and I am looking back to late 50s and early 60s. So over 50 years ago when it was a family outing on a Sunday afternoon. :)

Ron
 
This is interesting, because At the Arsenal Museum, we never see the ATF, despite the fact that we had a least a couple hundred fully automatic weapons. None of our full autos are on the ATFs books, as they will never be for sale or transfer. They are owned by the Federal Government.

I assume that the WW I Museum is not a DOD run museum? Perhaps owned by the state, or city?

Yeah, a private org, very public, lots of events near it, middle of a city on city property. That would do it.
 
Bear with me a minute. Assume 25 years per generation (maybe not perfectly accurate, but I'm the oldest, and my dad was better than 25 when I was born, and I was more than 25 when my oldest was born, so I'm going with it). Our Constitution is 233 years old. Basically 9 generations.

When I first went hunting I used a shotgun I borrowed from my grandfather. It is mine now, and I intend to give it to my grandson (he's actual not potential). That's 5 generations, significant in comparison to the longevity of our nation's government. It's nothing special, but a model described as being durable enough to "stake up your tomatoes with in the spring, and then hunt with in the fall", and I'm sure, good for another 5 generations.

In reality the shotgun was likely built in the 1940's. But I bet it lasts for a while.
 
I have a number of firearms over 150 years old that I bought from individuals. One is a Podewils-Lindner breech loading rifle dating back to the 1860's that I purchased from a motorcycling buddy who inherited it from is Grandfather who owned a cigar factory in Belgium in the early 1900's. He was also a gun collector who had most of his collection confiscated by the Nazi's when they occupied Belgium in WWII. He managed to hide some and left them to his grandkids after he had emigrated to Canada after the war which I purchased about 20 years ago. He had a Dutch naval pistol and the Podewils and I purchased both and have them in my possession currently. They had some corrosion from the time they were in hiding but the rifle cleaned up nicely, the pistol not so much but I intend to pass them on in my family with the story of their history. This is why I think there are a number of old firearms still in existence. I also have a Dutch Beaumont rifle dated 1875 with a story behind it that I purchased for $100 that was another Grandfather inherited acquisition.
 
This is a thread that will be full of hypotheses and no correct answer is likely, but prove me wrong.

The answers are going to be qualitative, as a percentage is mere speculation. Not that other answers won’t be pure speculation as well.

Somewhere someone mentioned that despite firearms being lost, destroyed intentionally or unintentionally, etc, there still are a lot of very old firearms out there. Most are well used with replaced parts often being the norm, but are firearms the historical artifact that tends to survive as compared to other historical artifacts over several centuries. The claim for this lies in the fact that they are durable artifacts that often one takes special care not to lose and also they would usually not be discarded?

What do you think? Are these the artifacts most likely to survive from another era? If not, what historical artifact might be more likely to survive at a greater percentage. Pottery, furniture, oil paintings, books, jewelry, coins, historical homes, etc. All the things I have mentioned seem less durable than a firearm, with the exception of coins, but these are often melted.

What say you?

Go check out the North South Skirmish Association. We shoot Civil War arms in competition. Many of them are originals. We don't use the original leather stuff like cartridge boxes, but we do use repros of those. We also shoot artillery live fire as well. Many of the artillery pieces are originals that saw service in the War.
 
I've noticed on Antiques Roadshow firearms seldom make the airing, but when they do they seem to be in the $6-10 K range. Civil war swords, confederate seem to be more numerous, are in the same range.

What rankles me most, is old clocks from late 1600's (once in awhile) thru early 1800's, to me, seem under valued. Even if they work and have the wind up keys, only bring $800 to $1500..... They are technically more complicated, and in many instances serious works of art.
 
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