Potsdam Smoothbores.....1831 Danzig

[Smokepole50]

I recently bought a Potsdam. It looks very original to me except for one issue.....it's platted....nickel or chrome, not sure which. Now by platted I mean just the steel parts. Sad part is I think it might be all matching less the missing rad rod. My gut feeling is this musket has not been messed with in a very very long time. Maybe even since 1842 when it was converted. Has anyone ever seen a platted Potsdam??

 

[Camp Randall Armory]

I recently bought a Potsdam. It looks very original to me except for one issue.....it's platted....nickel or chrome, not sure which. Now by platted I mean just the steel parts. Sad part is I think it might be all matching less the missing rad rod. My gut feeling is this musket has not been messed with in a very very long time. Maybe even since 1842 when it was converted. Has anyone ever seen a platted Potsdam??

Plating was common with muskets used by the GAR or other veteran organizations for ceremonial purpose.

 

[Smokepole50]

What does GAR stand for?

 

[mofederal]

Grand Army of the Republic. An organization made up of men who had fought in the Civil War Union Army.

 

[Story]

Plating was common with muskets used by the GAR or other veteran organizations for ceremonial purpose.

Didn't some of the post-war German 'Turner' societies do the same thing?
http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/collections/german-american/mss038

 

[originalrebelyell]

Post a photo of it I would like to see it.

 

[Smokepole50]

I will post pictures tomorrow.

 

[mofederal]

This sounds pretty interesting. I am looking forward to the pictures.

 

[Smokepole50]

Will try and take some better pictures later.

 

[Jobe Holiday]

I would rather think that the iron parts might be Nickel plated, because Nickel plating was perfected in the early 1870's, while Chrome plating didn't become successful until just after WW1.
J.

 

[mofederal]

I like that musket. It looks pretty good to me. I would think it was nickel plated also for the reasons stated. but it is hard for me to tell. It just might be my eyes. Does it appear brighter in person? Either way it is a nice looking musket.

 

[originalrebelyell]

Nice musket I like it.

 

[kevikens]

I have a Suhl musket, circa 1849, made for and issued to the short lived first German federal Navy. A number of these were purchased and vetted by the Werflein Brothers of Philadelphia and issued to the City Guard early in the Civil War. Mine is nickel plated and was used by the Philly GAR for decades after the war for parades and commemorations. Looking at yours I am not sure that is nickel plating. I have seen Brown Bess muskets that had been tinned to retard corrosion fur use on board ships. It is possible that what looks like post war nickel is actually pre war tinning.

 

[Story]

Butt markings. 5th Landwehr Regiment has traditionally been Westphalia / West Prussia.

The Prussian Landwehr was first formed by a royal edict of 17 March 1813, which called up all men capable of bearing arms between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, and not serving in the regular army, for the defense of the country.

 

[Smokepole50]

Some additional pictures taken outside in natural light. The barrel bands are pulled back to show the full shine of unexposed metal. Below the wood line it looks like it was done yesterday. You can see two places under the front band where the plating is coming off/ cracked like paint getting ready to peak.

 

[kevikens]

The metal under the bands does look like nickel to me, though flaking and wear indicate a nickel plating that was not done properly. Nickel is a pretty stable metal not given to much corrosion. I notice the bands are not plated at all. On my Suhl the bands are still bright nickel and only the nickel near the nipple show signs of flaking and pitting from the caps the gun used when firing salutes in the GAR parades. If the metal is nickel then it probably is a post war adaptation for ceremonial use.

 

[originalrebelyell]

Nice old musket

 

[moosedog]

Could it have been "tinned" for naval use?

 

[Jobe Holiday]

This musket is marked for LW use, aka Prussian Militia so that eliminates Naval use in Prussia, much less that it isn't a Naval model musket. The United States would have never used one of these arms ship board. The Confederate States never imported them. All plating, tinning, or chroming, is post war civilian modification.
J.

 

[kevikens]

This musket is marked for LW use, aka Prussian Militia so that eliminates Naval use in Prussia, much less that it isn't a Naval model musket. The United States would have never used one of these arms ship board. The Confederate States never imported them. All plating, tinning, or chroming, is post war civilian modification.
J.

I agree in this case that the plating is post war. However I am pretty sure I have seen British Besses which were tinned for sea use. I know for sure that the Brits tinned bayonets to retard rust because I have one that was designed for a Second model Bess and is marked for a regiment and company that was engaged in several Rev. War battles. Two months ago there was a thread here about an 1816 Whitney Composite Musket that mentioned the US experimenting with tinned barrels for just that purpose, retarding rust.