Gentlemen,
I've been lurking at your site, enjoying it but wondering what I could contribute since I don't hunt, haven't built a gun in years and don't do a lot of shooting. I am pretty much a collector, specializing in English and New England guns.
Well...I have seen and handled the rifle in question. It is still in the hands of the family. I suspect the lady who had it there is the one I've met. She's a direct descendent of Welcome Mathewson. the rifle, in fact, has never been out of the family. I didn't see the Antiquies Road Show but I did hear of it shortly after it was shown.
I have no idea who their "expert" was in this case. I'm guessing someone who really knows his stuff about the Civil War. It used to be the late Bill Guthman who I doubt would never have made such an absurd valuation. (though if anyone could have found a buyer at that price, it was him) Simply put, if it were to sell for 1/4 of $100,000 it would be bringing between five and ten times what could reasonably be expected for a New England Rifle. Why you may ask...because pratically no one collects them and very few are interested in them. In fact, I probably know nearly all the bigger collectors and you can count them on your fingers.
(Odd things can happen at auctions too...I saw an $800 sword sold for $18,000 because two members of a wealthy family both wanted it...the price had nothing at all to do ith the sword)
That said, it is an exceptional rifle especially as having been the property of the maker and having the horn etc still with it. I would guess it to be as good as a NE rifle can get and I wouldn't be surprised to see it fetch almost 10,000 in a room with more than one NE collector present.
For what its worth...they also have Welcome's fowler which is, interestingly, an English single barrel by Philip Bond.
There are five Matheson guns illustrated in Bill Achtermeier's book on RI Gunmakers cited above, all of which belonged to the late Donald Andreason. One of them, the one with the clock patchbox, probably had its patchbox added later. The workmanship isn't up to Welcome's standards. As to his work before 1805...that was the year he completed his apprenticeship so I don't think there would be anything older that was attributable to him. His style is quite distinctive, different from virtually all other NE makers. He liked a long wrist and "hand rail"...from the side his guns are very graceful looking but the wrist is ovid in shape, quite thick through the center for strength. I've had two muskets attributed to him, I still have one and although I never take "attributions" at face value it distinctive enough to be a possibility...that and the gun came out of the woodwork 70 years ago in the exact neighborhood.
His patchboxes are also unusual in that I think he may have cast them himself. His stock profile, with the long hand rail, makes using the conventional "off-the-shelf" NE horsehead patchbox difficult...the butt isn't flat enough, so Welcome's are actually cast to incorporate the curves. Never having owned one of the rifles mysef I haven't been able to take one apart to confirm this but I have handled all of those that were in Don Andreason's collection.
Now, having bored you to death I hope this didn't come off as a lecture...thats one of my problems. It is a great rifle but no one is an expert at everything and NE rifles are such an obscure subject that we shouldnt' be surprised if they bobbled the valuation on this one.
Joe Puleo
