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Cool pedersoli Bess

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I picked up a pedersoli Bess at gun show. It is marked on the thumb piece "Royal Welsh Fusiliers " XXIII regiment foot crest. Rack number 521. It also has a name engraved top of butt plate. I heard this was a special run. Anyone know the details and tid bits of info.
 
Is the rack number a "5" or "V" over the "21" sort of like a fraction, I.E. 5/24? That's the closest I could come to looking like a fraction is normally written.

Gus
 
Shine said:
521 then crest below then XXIII below the crest.

Rather uncommon, but I do not know specifically how the 23rd marked their muskets. Fifth Company, Number 21 Musket, though.

I have not heard of a special run of muskets made up that way, though I have not been around Navy Arms for about a decade. Did someone inform you this was a special run of muskets?

Gus
 
Erik Goldstein, co author of "The Brown Bess; An Identification Guide and Illustrated Study of Britain's Most Famous Musket" and Curator of Numismatics and Arms at Colonial Williamsburg was in the 23rd for some time. Maybe I will run into him and see him at the gun show next month and I'll ask him about it.

Gus
 
The Reenactment Group that portrayed the 23rd had the butt plates and thumb escutcheons of a bunch of their Pedersoli muskets engraved, I have been informed, several decades ago. As they have passed or left the hobby, these have begun to appear on the market.

Unfortunately, the engraving of a person's name on the butt plate is not a historic manner of marking the musket, unless the musket was a private piece belonging to an officer. An Enlisted man's name would never have been engraved on property that belongs to The King.

The thumb escutcheon was a normal location to mark the company and rack number for a King's Musket either LLP, SLP [such as the Pedersoli] or IP type. However, the engraving used for this run of the 23rd muskets was in a modern font. An officer's musket would not have had a rack number.

Several have popped up on Gunbroker and other sites , often priced as much as a brand new Pedersoli Bess, but with the engraving which (imho) doesn't add to their value.

There's no reason though that the muskets would be anything less than a good functioning gun and a good shooter.

LD
 
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