VERY GOOD ASHER AND PLINY BARTLET US 1808 CONTRACT MUSKET DATED 1811

VERY GOOD ASHER AND PLINY BARTLET US 1808 CONTRACT MUSKET DATED 1811

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$2,250.00

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Item Code: 2025-3656

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Asher and Pliny Bartlett of Springfield, Mass., signed an Oct. 31, 1808, US contract for 2,500 muskets to be delivered over five years and to be of the then current Springfield pattern, with Schmidt specifying it as “Charleville pattern Type II, as manufactured at Springfield in 1808.” According to Moller, they managed to supply 1,825 muskets- not the worst performance by an 1808 contractor- delivered from 1810 through 1812. This is a very good example, with nice surface and color to the wood and metal, a little corrosion on the lock but otherwise good markings that even include traces of the US acceptance stamp on the left side flat.

This is complete, full length, with 43-1/2” barrel, with top mounted bayonet stud, front sight on rear strap of the top band, and other all bands, springs, swivels and rod in place, and good mechanics. The barrel is smooth metal, mostly gray mixed with darker gray on the upper portions and shading to a thin brown toward the breech, which has a very clear sunken oval with eagle’s head over “CT” with a slightly rubbed “V” indicating inspection and proof of a contract arm.

Riley illustrates five different lockplate markings used on Bartlett muskets. This is his #212, noted as the earliest pattern used on their U.S. contract, this one having an 1811 date at the rear of the plate and “US / [eagle] / BARTLETT” forward of the cock as here. Moller indicates the “US” could be in script or “stamped,” by which he likely means block letters, as here. Other designs were used on their state contract or privately purchased muskets. The lockplate shows as gray mixed with brown and has some corrosion forward of the cock, leaving the US stamp as very good, but obscuring the eagle and the “AR” of “BARTLETT.” The cock shows some shallow pitting, as does the buttplate.

The wood has a pleasing warm brown tone and good edges showing just slight rounding and good fit to the metal, though showing a gap at the shoulder for the middle band, some minor wear to the lower ramrod channel, a very narrow shrinkage gap along some of the breechplug tang, a small chip at the head of the small pin holding the lower sling swivel lug on the left, and a short hairline on the upper left butt flat running a couple inches forward. Most unusual, however, is that it still preserves faint, but legible traces of the “V/BM” acceptance stamp of Benjamin Moor(e), an inspector of contract arms at Springfield. See Daum and Pate for his biography and record. Schmidt (spelling his name as Moore) records his inspection of 500 Bartlett muskets and bayonets on Sept. 24, 1811, and another 75 on October 31.

American 1808 contract muskets are collecting field of their own with connections to the War of 1812 and the efforts by the government to develop domestic arms manufacture as tensions rose with Britain after the 1807 Chesapeake-Leopard Affair.   [sr][ph:L]

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