Help with flintlock musket please

[Lothar]

My wife got this musket several years ago after her grandfather died and when I had asked her about it previously she just said she thought it was from the Civil War era and didn't know if it had belonged to an ancestor or not. I never really gave it much thought but I was moving it last night and noticed it was smooth bore, and I also have recently read Drums Along the Mohawk and it sounded like most militiamen by that point were using rifles, so I figured it was probably older than the Civil War. I tried several hours and went through hundreds of pictures and I can't figure out what it is. My wife asked her mom if she knew anything else about it, and she said that her grandad had probably bought it at a garage sale or something (and this would have been in the Morgantown, WV area).

The things that kept throwing me off were the hammer/cock, of which I only saw a few that were so fat and round, and those didn't match other aspects of the lock, and the frizzen spring sticking way over the front of the lock body. I didn't see any others like that.

It is very pitted and the only mark I see is something that may be an arrow or chicken foot on top of the barrel near the rear, and something beside it that is indecipherable.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Lothar]

After looking again, the lock looks maybe French or a copy of a French. There is also a five-petal fleur-de-lis carved on the bottom of the stock in front of the trigger guard.

 

[Conquerordie]

The metal bands on the front look Mediterranean or African. It might not even be as old as the Civil War. The stock is fancier than normal, has a French look.

 

[Thagomizer]

Looks like a British broad arrow mark.

 

[64Springer]

Those screw heads/slots look they were machined yesterday.

That gun ain't old.

 

[tenngun]

Cant give you a date, and it’s hard in a photo to tell old from new.
There was a big business from about 1870 up through the 1950s of producing artificial antiques often from old parts.
As said above it looks like French influenced and decorative aspects look muslin inspired. So French or Spanish North Africa might be its homeland

 

[tenngun]

Cant give you a date, and it’s hard in a photo to tell old from new.
There was a big business from about 1870 up through the 1950s of producing artificial antiques often from old parts.
As said above it looks like French influenced and decorative aspects look muslin inspired. So French or Spanish North Africa might be its home

 

[Sam squanch]

The stock looks very Portuguese. I’m saying African or possibly South American trade musket.

 

[IanH]

Does anyone else think the lock might have been converted from percussion?

Long frizzen spring, short lock plate, no frizzen bridle, brass pan, new screws, pits on lock plate disproportionate to other metal, flintcock in the french trade fusil or Harper's Ferry 1803 style kind of adds up to either a fantasy build, a garbage disposal, or perhaps it was Rube Goldberg's?

 

[Rudyard]

Ide say older Continental mounts & lock stocked up later,& it HAS a pan bridle the stocking Peninsular influence but all right enough and got some age & nothing percussion about it . The bands just suggest a local restocker who didn't do anything phony or fantasy .likely some Colonial with Iberian culture . Rustic perhaps but nice enough .
Rudyard's view

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

The stock is Catalan in architecture, but I don't think it was made there. It seems to say Morrocco to me, or somewhere in north Africa. Probably 100 or less years old.

 

[Rudyard]

Ide say more Madrid form that Catalan. the rest is a good surmise . Spanish Sahara / Canaries Las Palmas Tenerife might fit better than Morocco .Pan & feather spring evidently later but correct as to pattern their where Jillions of such parts most Continental armies followed the French style As did the US. Cant say its not a conversation piece !
Rudyard

 

[rickystl]

Hmmmm....this one is what we call a real head scratchier. LOL But I'll take a shot at it. Agree more with Rudyard here. The butt stock and wrist area shape and moldings, along with the dot and star punch decoration, is very much styled like Spanish sporting fowling guns of the early 1800's. But the tapered, round barrel (Spanish sporting guns used octagon-to-round barrels) looks like it was from a shortened musket or trade gun perhaps. Likewise, the trigger, guard, and side plate look military or trade gun variety. The trigger guard mortise looks like there was originally a different guard installed. This one added later. The lock - ?? The crude barrel bands were likely added later in the period due to a lack of under lugs on the barrel. Overall, this gun looks like it was assembled using a variety of different surplus parts that was available at the moment. Taking both the barrel and lock off might provide more clues (?) It's definitely a conversation piece.

Rick

 

[Rudyard]

Hmmmm....this one is what we call a real head scratchier. LOL But I'll take a shot at it. Agree more with Rudyard here. The butt stock and wrist area shape and moldings, along with the dot and star punch decoration, is very much styled like Spanish sporting fowling guns of the early 1800's. But the tapered, round barrel (Spanish sporting guns used octagon-to-round barrels) looks like it was from a shortened musket or trade gun perhaps. Likewise, the trigger, guard, and side plate look military or trade gun variety. The trigger guard mortise looks like there was originally a different guard installed. This one added later. The lock - ?? The crude barrel bands were likely added later in the period due to a lack of under lugs on the barrel. Overall, this gun looks like it was assembled using a variety of different surplus parts that was available at the moment. Taking both the barrel and lock off might provide more clues (?) It's definitely a conversation piece.

Rick

Hmm Though I don't see any fault with the guard inletting its barrel & lock all post Napoleonic & side plate ditto but agree barrel not classic Spanish but then the gun is a ' got up bitzter' with only the stock form a useful guide as to origin Adds charm in my book . Not Catalan style more Madrid style stocking in form .
Regards Rudyard

 

[IanH]

it HAS a pan bridle

It sure does, clearly, I don't know what I saw last night that made me think that.

 

[Lothar]

Thanks for all the input. I'll take the barrel and lock off and see if there are any markings on the inside.