Beschreibung:

Exceptionally long percussion fowling piece, with untouched figured maple stock and checkered wrist, fitted with brass buttplate, ramrod pipes, and engraved, “pineapple” style trigger guard, lacking brass fore-end cap. Smoothbore, 60 Caliber, 57.25 in. octagonal to round barrel with untouched deep even age brown patina and brass bead front sight. British proof marks on breech. The lock converted from flintlock to percussion, with lockplate marked "Galton.” Lacking one barrel pin, another replaced with a wooden plug. Evidence of sling swivel mounting on bottom comb of stock. Affixed to the left cheek plate of the stock is a heavy gage, 5 x 1 in. brass plaque with the following inscription in block letters: The gun is the original “Long Tom” of John James Audubon At his death, his widow, Mrs. Lucy Bakewell Audubon gave the gun to her brother William Gifford Bakewell. This statement is testified to by Mrs. William G. Bakewell and Miss Harriet Bachman Audubon, granddaughter of J.J. Audubon. The gun is offered with a traditional Scottish flattened ornamental powder horn, approximately 11 in. in length, richly decorated with silver fittings cast and chased with Scottish thistles at the spout, midpoint and butt. The butt originally inset with a faceted glass cairngorm (present but loose and chipped). The horn additionally ornamented with a small silver plaque engraved: Presented to J.J. Audubon. By Natural History Society Edinburg 1827. With three silver rings for a silver shoulder strap. Audubon and His Life in the Ohio Valley Audubon, John James (1785-1851). French-American hunter, naturalist, painter and ornithologist best known for his iconic masterpiece The Birds of America. Audubon’s “Long Tom,” an English flintlock wildfowling gun, and his presentation powder horn are directly descended from Audubon to the present owner. Born in 1785 on his father’s sugar plantation in Les Cayes, Saint Domingue (present-day Haiti), John James Audubon’s given name was Jean Rabin. He was the son of a prosperous French naval officer, Jean Audubon, and his mistress, Jeanne Rabin, who died within months of her son's birth. Due to rising slave tensions on the island, Jean Audubon determined that his young son and another illegitimate child should be relocated to France. The children settled near Nantes, France, where they were raised by Audubon and his French wife, Anne Moynet. The young Jean Rabin was formally adopted by the Audubons and his name was changed to Jean-Jacques Audubon. It was the naturalist and ornithologist himself who adopted the name by which we know him today, choosing to Anglicize his name to John James Audubon when he embarked for America in 1803. While Audubon ostensibly left France to manage land owned by his father at Mill Grove in Pennsylvania, the move was likely initiated to keep John James from being conscripted into Napoleon’s army. Audubon was immediately captivated by the natural wildlife he encountered, and particularly with the birds that flourished in the Pennsylvania wilderness. He was also enchanted by the daughter of one of his neighbors. After a lengthy courtship, he married Lucy Green Bakewell (1787-1874) in 1808. The young couple moved first to Louisville then to Henderson, Kentucky. Operating as a merchant and a miller, Audubon’s business fortunes rose and then fell precipitously during the next decade. Through it all, however, he maintained a passion for wildlife and for sketching. “I seldom passed a day without drawing a bird, or noting something respecting its habits…,” Audubon later wrote of his time in Kentucky. In the winter of 1819, Audubon was given a much-needed opportunity to improve his finances. Dr. Daniel Drake, a well-respected physician with an interest in natural history, invited Audubon to Cincinnati to work at the newly established Western Museum Society, a precursor to the current Cincinnati Museum of Natural History. Dr. Drake envisioned the Society as a conduit to present western natural