This Powder Horn has been in my families possession for at lest 73 years. There are no identifying Marks or Numbers on it. I thought at first it was Military but there are no War Marks and it seems too well made to be manufactured as a Novelty item. Anyone seen one like it?

---

 Attachment: 335.69 KB
[ Download ]

 Attachment: 331.83 KB
[ Download ]

 Attachment: 298.8 KB
[ Download ]

[ Linked Image ]
I haven't seen this kind of powder horn before.
Any experts?

Identifying powder horns, absent markings, can be somewhat difficult because they were made over such a long period of time and in many locations for different uses. Yours appears to be an antique based on the spout attached to the tip and the metal base. I believe it may be a military priming horn used by an artillery battery to prime muzzle loading cannon. It may also have been used on board a ship. The valve is adjustable for the amount of priming or charge required and the lever is, of course, used to open the horn and pour the charge. The end of the spout would be covered when the valve was opened so there would be, in theory, no direct connection between the touch hole of the cannon and the powder supply in the horn when it was actually used. The tip would act as a measure, holding the correct amount of charge until it was time to pour it into the touch hole.

Artillery horns were usually very large since quite a bit of powder was used to insure ignition and therefore a larger reservoir was needed so the horn would not need frequent refilling. Yours is a bit small for an artillery horn but that does not mean it wasn't. Valves of the type on your horn were used on a lot of artillery horns but also on horns used with other arms. There were a lot of different valve arrangements in use. If this is an artillery horn I suspect it dates from early to mid-19th century.

It is also possible that this is not an artillery priming horn at all but one used with a musket although, of course, paper cartridges were almost always used during the muzzle loading era, rather than horns.

Absence of markings is curious, if it is indeed a military issue horn but not unknown.

I hope this helps but surely others will also offer ideas.

Thanks Guys, Since I posted I found this on an Antique Site so at lest there is another one out there although it doesn't give any information on it.

http://oneofakindantiques.com/catalog/2582_an...horn_1.htm

I was hoping the time frame would be around the 1790's