Ca. 1760-1820 U.S. ARTILLERY PRIMING HORN

Ca. 1760-1820 U.S. ARTILLERY PRIMING HORN

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$550.00

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 2026-9352

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This is a rare piece in exceptional condition that would make a great addition to artillery display, especially one concentrating on the period of the American Revolution and War of 1812. It comes with a collector’s note that he purchased it from Jim Hogan at Bannerman’s Store at Bluepoint, Long Island in 1965. Collectors will be familiar with Bannerman’s, of course, mostly from the famous island castle in the Hudson, and from reprints of their famous catalogs of antique arms and military goods. Items were still coming off the island in the 1960s, but retail operations had largely moved to the Bluepoint location. According to the note, West Point curator Jerry Stowe looked at it after the purchase, dated it 1760-1820, and identified it as an artillery priming horn.

This is in very good condition, with base plug in place, secured by a brass band around the lower end, tacked in place, and has two iron suspension loops. The tip is fitted with a sheet-brass collar and S-shaped lever that is missing just its small steel spring that would raise the cap from spout by depressing the small thumbpiece. The horn is largely a dark brown in color, with no breaks, cracks or substantial chips, but does show some rubbing and wear revealing the underlying lighter cream color of the horn. The iron loops show surface rust. The brass has an undisturbed age patina showing some olive brown and some light green, all in all, a very nice, untouched, undisturbed look. Measures approx. 26 ½” in overall length.

Horns of this pattern are known with British markings. Gilkerson and Bailey both point to their appearance as early as the Revolution, with use both in the navy and the army for artillery in the army for light infantry as well. This one is unmarked and the relative crudeness points to American manufacture. There is no firm cut-off date for their use and they show up in both army and navy contexts, but Mordecai’s 1839 “Artillery for the United States Land Service,” shows the introduction of a fixed, rectangular suspension loop, making the West Point curator’s dating likely accurate, though we might move the lower date up to 1770.

See Bailey, Small Arms of the British Forces in North America and Gilkerson, Boarders Away, for some of the early use of this pattern, and also Fred Gaede’s always valuable contributions in the Military Collector and Historian and Journal of the Society of American Arms Collectors on priming horns and the introduction of artillery gunlocks.  [sr] [ph:m/L]

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