Crown Marking on Brown Bess

[orpington]

First, is there a site devoted to Brown Bess muskets? Such as an active forum?

In any event, I was looking at a Brown Bess offered at auction yesterday and I had a few concerns. One of these was the engraved crown over a 'GR' (all Brown Bess muskets have a 'GR' as a King George was on the throne during all Brown Bess production). Indeed, technically the crown was not even engraved, but rather stamped, by the time of the production of the musket I was looking at--e.g., India Pattern Type II. Therefore, any variation should be non-existent to limited. The musket I looked at contained a crown that was not identical to anything else out there that I could find. Even Goldstein & Mowbray's otherwise excellent book 'The Brown Bess' and DeWitt Bailey, who also produced excellent books on this subject, fail to identify all variations of crown markings encountered.

This particular musket sold for $1830 yesterday, more than I thought it was worth even if I did not question the crown marking. Even a Pedersoli reproduction brought $854 (prices include buyer's premium).

 

[Loyalist Dave]

The crown marking on the lock may differ, as it started out being engraved by the lock makers who were private contractors. So the "Grice" lock you find on the Pedersoli repro does not mean when found on an original, that the whole musket was made by Mr. Grice's firm...., but that the lock was made by that firm. Only when the locks were completed soley by the Tower of London armory (such locks are marked "tower"), was the engraving and later stamping, pretty much uniform, and then depending on the model, only when the supply of previously contracted locks were exhausted, does this become the rule. So all of your LLP muskets would ahve variations in their crowns (and they were in production until after the American War of Independence), and some of your SLP (aka 2nd models) as well, for if you check Bailey, some of the SLP's were contracted out for production...the private builders did not have the stamps, while the goverment locks would have been stamped. Further, you have some very similar muskets to true SLP's that are misidentified as SLP muskets, that have what would be considered an "odd" lock. THEN (iirc) India Pattern muskets fashioned in country in India, after the BEIC became a government company and their army came under direct British command, hand locks fashioned in India, which may have been differently marked than those made at the tower. The big problem today is you have parts coming out of India that are in some cases reasonably well preserved, that are then restocked, and when restocked by a clever lad, are tough to tell they are so and are sold as "originals" for large sums.

LD

 

[daboyleroy]

Check out

https://www.thefirearmsforum.com/threads/old-musket-identification.156456/


https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/bri...attern-brown-bess-barrel-markings-t17353.html


https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/britishmilitariaforums/index.phphttps://

www.tapatalk.com/groups/britishmilitariaforums/india-pattern-brown-bess-markings-t20494.html

http://davidgibbins.com/journal/201...rs-date-stamped-msr-de-meurons-swiss-regiment

 

[4v50 Gary]

There are some good books on the Bess and on British military firearms. Colonial Williamsburg's Curator Eric Goldstein has a very good well illustrated book. I would also consider DeWitt's Bailey's books.