1430

Complete flintlock rifle, stabilized and lacquered and mounted on a board for hanging. About 13 lb,

Currency:USD Category:Artifacts / Shipwreck Artifacts Start Price:700.00 USD Estimated At:700.00 - 1,000.00 USD
Complete flintlock rifle, stabilized and lacquered and mounted on a board for hanging.  About 13 lb,
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This item SOLD at 2012 Apr 11 @ 19:44UTC-4 : AST/EDT
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Complete flintlock rifle, stabilized and lacquered and mounted on a board for hanging. About 13 lb, 58-1/2" long overall. This is something you never see from a shipwreck: A whole rifle, including the wooden stock and iron barrel! Normally the wood rots and is eaten by worms, and the iron rusts away; yet here we have an intact example, with small pieces missing but the overall shape and integrity just as it was in 1733. Even the ramrod is present (clinging to the barrel with encrustation, as well as the flintlock mechanism itself (also encrusted), just missing the trigger-guard and probably some other small furniture. The diver who found it wisely mummified the piece in acrylic right away, as opposed to professionally conserving it, which would have eliminated most of the iron and wood; but he sealed it together with the crude scrap board it is mounted on (its right side jaggedly broken), and he left the drips on the back, probably to enhance its rusticity. (Pickup only.) From the "Coffins Patch" site. From the Spanish 1733 Fleet, Florida Keys