Looking for more info on this short land pattern Brown Bess

Hello all you helpful people!
I'm hoping someone with more knowledge than I can help me with identifying this gun.
I understand it's a "brown bess" and it's a short land patter (58") but the markings on the lock look different than anything I can find. The crown is more rudimentary, the lettering larger. I'm not sure about the cross hatching on the wood. I'm assuming it's useful for grip but also not seeing anything like it.

Nothing special about the rest of it, which is why I'm just showing some photos - but happy to include more if you would like.

Hello
Sorry to say that's not a SLP Bess. It's trying to look like one but it isn't. It's likely a trade gun made for African trade.

The lock is a mish mash of design features. The cock is the correct style for a 3rd model aka India Pattern,



While the pan on the lock is of a very old style with a frizzen screw unsupported by a bridle:



The rear of the lock has no engraved border, and it's a flat lock plate when Bess plates were rounded:



The engraving forward of the cock and the acceptance stamp are not quite right:



It should look more like this:



Finally the forward portion of the lock mortise is incorrect, and the lock may not be the original, which is debatable, however the forward lock screw on a Bess comes through from the opposite side of the lock, not from the same side as the lock plate:



So the lock is trying to be close to these two locks, an SLP and a 3rd Model. Africans liked the Bess and pretty much anything that looked "Bess-ish" would get their attention and they would buy:





LD

Thank you so much! This explains why it was confounding me so much. I was seeing the "not quite right" all over but don't have the knowledge to recognize it and had imagined these were maybe odd features of a certain date. The engraving was overly simplified for sure. I was kind of thinking it was inauthentic but it definitely is not 20th century. Do you happen to know around when these were made?
This makes me even more curious about how it ended up back where it is.

Full disclosure, this is in a historical society collection in the Boston metro area. I should know more about this sort of weapon, but my knowledge is just basic. It was donated by a local family in 1950 and they didn't know where it came from at that time (so it was at least many decades old by then. How would they have a gun for African trade?

Loyalist Dave said:

Hello
Sorry to say that's not a SLP Bess. It's trying to look like one but it isn't. It's likely a trade gun made for African trade.

The lock is a mish mash of design features. The cock is the correct style for a 3rd model aka India Pattern,

View attachment 366646

While the pan on the lock is of a very old style with a frizzen screw unsupported by a bridle:

View attachment 366647

The rear of the lock has no engraved border, and it's a flat lock plate when Bess plates were rounded:

View attachment 366648

The engraving forward of the cock and the acceptance stamp are not quite right:

View attachment 366649

It should look more like this:

View attachment 366650

Finally the forward portion of the lock mortise is incorrect, and the lock may not be the original, which is debatable, however the forward lock screw on a Bess comes through from the opposite side of the lock, not from the same side as the lock plate:

View attachment 366651

So the lock is trying to be close to these two locks, an SLP and a 3rd Model. Africans liked the Bess and pretty much anything that looked "Bess-ish" would get their attention and they would buy:

View attachment 366652

View attachment 366653

LD

Click to expand...

SLUND said:

I was kind of thinking it was inauthentic but it definitely is not 20th century. Do you happen to know around when these were made?
This makes me even more curious about how it ended up back where it is.

Full disclosure, this is in a historical society collection in the Boston metro area. I should know more about this sort of weapon, but my knowledge is just basic. It was donated by a local family in 1950 and they didn't know where it came from at that time (so it was at least many decades old by then. How would they have a gun for African trade?

Click to expand...

Well the problem with the Bess-ish African Trade Guns is they were made by European colonial powers up into the 1960's. The Africans wanted guns, but the colonial powers didn't want them having modern cartridge weapons. The Africans liked the durability of the Bess, and having perhaps faced trained soldiers once upon a time employing the Bess, may have had something to do with that admiration and legends connected to the weapon. (The 3rd Model cock on the lock points to an African trade gun origin too, because that would've been the cock on the 3rd model Bess they likely would've seen, and would expect, so a civilian builder making trade guns might want to copy that feature.)

A flintlock would mean less expense for the local people to shoot the gun. Caps cost money, and caps don't do well in damp climates, and parts of Africa are known to be damp. I'd wager that IF this is a trade gun, that it entered into Africa in one of four colonies, Gold Coast, Ashanti, The Northern Territories, or British Togoland. Those four areas became Ghana in 1957. Ghana is part of the continent today called "The Gold Coast". It's rainforest there.

There is also Liberia, which was created as a place to repatriate freed slaves from America. More than 15,000 English speaking former slaves were sent to Liberia up until 1861. That's another place that would've had traders from other nations that might sell Bess-ish trade guns. So although such guns were made and sold into the 1960's, that doesn't mean this wasn't made in the 1850's.

How did it get here? Lots of scenarios. Sold off in a market in Africa as a tourist souvenir and wall hanger. Given to a missionary or a doctor or an official as a gift (it IS pretty fancy), and thus it was brought back. You'd be surprised at what you could bring on an airplane back in the 1950's. On a ship, well anything goes.

LD