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Liege Brown Bess

2K views 7 replies 3 participants last post by  rescuerandy2 
#1 ·
Good Evening. I am looking at purchasing a Liege Brown Bess in good shape with no missing parts, working lock, and has some visible markings. Need to get an idea of a fair price before taking the plunge. Thanks, Randy
 
#2 ·
I'm afraid your description leaves a great deal to be desired. A lot of people use the therm "Brown Bess" very loosely... so without a photo, it's hard to tell if you are talking about a generic, commercial Liege-made copy of the India pattern (or some other gun altogether) which isn't rare at all or one of the Liege-made Land Pattern muskets produced in the 1770s for the Ordnance Office — which is very rare.

How do you know it was Liege-made? If it has the conventional LEG proofmarks, it almost certainly has to have been made after the Napoleonic Wars and, therefore, cant be an ordnance musket of any sort. When you say "has all it's parts"... is it a flintlock...percussion? If a flintlock, is it a reconversion?
 
#5 ·
Some Information

Thanks. From the seller, "American Revolution British Military 2nd Model Flintlock Brown Bess Service Pattern 1768-1777 Musket Liege Contract; 42 inch barrel clear store keepers mark on stock and inside lock marked IG for Jean Gosiun who was one of the gunmakers contracted by the Tower of London Ordnance to produce 60,000 muskets. As photos show this gun is well marked and in as found condition kept safe from any surface disturbance or alteration. A rare survivor." I do need a sense of a fair price for this weapon. Thanks, Randy
 
#7 · (Edited)
Yes... that looks very good. I believe these muskets were identified by DeWitt Bailey only a few years ago so whoever is selling it must have Bailey's book on British Arms in North America or the Goldstein & Mowbray book on the Brown Bess. As far as I know, those are the only two places it has ever been illustrated. It is a short Land Pattern musket... in collector jargon, a 2nd Model (although that designation was never used in period).

PM me if you'd like to discuss approximate value... for my own reasons, I'd prefer not to go into that on an open forum.
 
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