6/8/2022 – Frontier Firearms from the Lifetime Collection of Larry Ness

.58 caliber. 36.25″ pinned  three-stage octane to round barrel with baluster turned rings at the transitions. SN: NSN. Blued and color casehardened finish, brass and iron furniture, hardwood stock. Round tailed flint lock in original flint configuration and is marked in four lines at the tail, “PARKER FIELD/& Co/1874/LONDON”. The Hudson’s Bay Company’s “{Tombstone Fox / EB}” trademark is stamped below the pan and on the top flat of the barrel. A depressed circular stamp is present on the obverse butt that has the raised letters “HHB Co” over a “{Standing Fox}”. Barrel with London commercial proofs on the left angled flat and a 24 gauge mark, indicating .58 caliber. Traditional Northwest Trade Gun features including the serpent side plate, over-sized iron triggerguard, carved moldings around the tang, rear of lock mortise and rear of counterpane, “two ring” barrel, flat brass buttplate and corrugated sheet brass ramrod pipes. A simple wooden ramrod that is likely a replacement is present in the channel under the barrel. Although a late production flintlock considering the technology of the time period, the Hudson’s Bay Company was still dealing in flint ignition Northwest Trade Guns up to the turn of the 20th century. An exceptionally nice condition example of one of the later production Northwest guns that was still made two years before the Battle of the Little Bighorn.