Help with a dated 1759 powder horn please

I was thinking also the old English spells words different than today. So back then I was told by a good friend and a history teacher of 35 years said Henry used to be spelled Henri?
 
Henri could be French spelling too (an-ree). I have read quite a number of letters (published) or diaries by British officers of the period and sSpelling could be phonetic and it was not unknown for the same word to be misspelled twice in the same paragraph. Quill pens didn't have auto-correct. Pocket dictionaries weren't around and certainly weren't carried on campaigns.

Remember carved horns could be made by professionals or by soldiers (trench art). Yours is beautiful but not the best carving or scrimshawing I've seen. This does not detract from it. They all have a unique story of their own.

One thing about used horns, the side that it is worn against tend to lose details more than the unworn side. Can you post more images? You can put a chopstick into the spout and use beanbags to support it while you rotate it for different angles.

Modern reproductions also duplicate misspellings in the strive to duplicate the original as closely as possible.
 
I will most definitely get better pics. I have troubles posting pics. I’ll have the wire help me out tomorrow evening! Bedtime now :). Thanks guys!!
 
Patina is right. The stopper looks suspiciously new. The plug at the end doesn't seemed banged up or dirtied and. Please do share what the auction house says. But don't you sell it.
 
I won’t sell it until I know for certain. And I will keep updating. My wife was going to try to add more pics from her work computer here in a bit. I have about 13 more pics I sent to a member in a message that I’m trying to get help uploaded. The software on the site doesn’t allow me to add them from a phone. :)
 
Just heard back from a local auction house. He said it looks to be authentic. He wants to get the pics over to someone who would know for sure. But also wants me to bring it in to see in person. So hopefully tomorrow I can get over there and find something out.
 
Please share the details.

BTW, suggest you take very good professional photographs of it and get it published in Muzzle Blasts.
 
Ok just got a email back from Tom Slater. He specializes in this type of history and he said. “It is a very nice horn and obviously authentic” he went on saying he’s not seeing anything military related to the horn so he believes it would be a civilian horn. Then he gave me the name of another place in Cincinnati that would be able to help me get it into a collectors hand. Since he didn’t feel it was military related it wouldn’t meet their price on the low end.

And this is one of the biggest auction houses in the US. Located just north of me in Chicago IL.
 
Muzzle Blasts is the magazine of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association located in Friendship, Indiana.

There were professional horners who carved and then scrimshawed horns. There were also soldiers who engaged in trench art. Your horn appears to be the latter both in term of sculpting of the horn as well as quality of the scrimshaw. This doesn't detract from it.

Was your family here during the French and Indian War (1755-60) or Pontiac's Rebellion (1763)? You may want to identify your ancestor then and have second thoughts about getting rid of a family heirloom.
 
Sorry for my lack of knowledge in the gun dept. ;( well the wife tried to add some more pictures but it wouldn’t let her sign into my acct:/ I’ll try again later on. Thank you guys for the help and I’ll update you guys when I here more :)
 
True on he civilian theory. Most carving/drawing by military members tends to picture military scenes (marching troops, flag poles, barracks, cannon, etc.)

The horn has seen a lot of use and may have been "restored" at one time. Areas of the outer layer are missing, where it split and peeled off. (Horns are built up by nature in layers; the original maker would have made sure the outer layer extended fully down to cover the end block.)

Jim
 
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