WAR OF 1812 WINNER, NIPPES AND STEINMAN 1808 US CONTRACT MUSKET

WAR OF 1812 WINNER, NIPPES AND STEINMAN 1808 US CONTRACT MUSKET

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$1,850.00

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Item Code: 2025-3660

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Spurred by rising tensions with Britain, most notably the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair of 1807, the US government began letting contracts arms makers for muskets based on the current Harpers Ferry or Springfield “Charleville” patterns. Material shortages, rising costs, contradictory instructions from US inspectors, when they appeared, caused most of these contractors to default, many owing money to the government for cash advances made to set up production, likely leaving many to feel, like the man being ridden out of town on a rail, that, “if it weren’t for the honor of thing he would rather have walked.”

This is an interesting example of those contracts, a musket generally following the Harpers Ferry configuration, made by James Winner, Abraham Nippes and John Steinman of Philadelphia, who signed a US contract for 9,000 muskets on July 20, 1808 (Moller says “Daniel Nippes; Riley and Schmidt, “Abraham.”) How many they actually delivered is unclear: Moller says 4,100, all through 1813; Schmidt records deliveries of 3,400 and payments for 3,700, but notes an abstract saying they had delivered 4,000 by September 30, 1811. In any case, they seem to have started off strong, then tapered off, and certainly fell short. It seems that Nippes either left the company or bought out his partners: muskets with lockplates marked “NIPPES, / & CO. / PHILA.” are attributed to the same operation. Nippes died in December 1812 and son-in-law Daniel Henkels then took over the operation and was manager of Nippes’s estate. Schmidt records U.S. payment to him for 100 muskets in 1813.  He also seems to have produced 1808 contract style musket for Pennsylvania and Maryland and in 1815 obtained a US contract that would resolve Nippes’s outstanding debt for advanced payments by crediting a portion of the muskets supplied to the monies owed.

The musket is complete and all original, with all bands, springs, swivels and rod in place, and still in flint. The barrel shows a little crustiness at the muzzle, but is generally smooth metal, brown in tone, with some thin surface rust on the underside of the middle band, on the triggerguard bow and finial, and trigger plate, around the base of the frizzen, touchhole, and inside the curve of the frizzen spring.  The markings are good. The US barrel proof for a contract musket, an eagle’s head over “CT” in a sunken oval, is very sharp on the left breech of the barrel. The lockplate is smooth metal showing some corrosion forward of the cock, partially affecting the eagle, facing forward, perched on an oval with a US inside, but with crisp “W.N & S / PHILAD.” at rear of the plate, just a tad light on the “S.”

The wood has a pleasing deep brown tone and shows good edges to the side flat and lock apron. The ramrod channel is good, with some chipping below the middle band, whose sling swivel shows a slight bend. The edges along the barrel channel are generally good, though we see a narrow splice extending forward along the upper edge of the lock apron for a few inches along the barrel channel near the breech. More noticeable is an old repair to a fracture to the wood along the upper rear of the lock. This was simply repaired by using three iron nails, whose heads are visible. The damage and repair have left a gap along the forward right side of the breechplug tang, and we see a small piece inlet at the base of the tang as well. This is certainly a period repair, made while the musket was still in use. We also note and narrow gap along the buttplate and a short hairline on the right extending forward from buttplate, though whether that is connected or just shrinkage is unclear. Otherwise we see just an X lightly incised forward of the triggerguard finial, the usual handling and age marks, and a collection number “20” in white paint on the right muzzle. Please see our photos.   [sr][ph:L]

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