More obscurity

K

kjm

New member
This is a shotgun brought to the United States from what is now Austria by my Great, Great grandfather sometime during or after the civil war.

It is hard to make much out but the top of the barrel says: IOHANN FLOENANSCHUTZ



I have another, but it is impossible to make out any details in the markings. It is a double percussion shotgun marked with the initials of my great, great, great grandfather. What a shame I cannot read the markings! He was an original land grant Texan, and he showed up here in 1825. The gun is very neat and in pretty good shape, I just cannot read the barrel. Anyway, if I can get info on the other guns, I'll be doing great!
 
All I can tell you is what you already know, that Iohann or Johann Floenschutz is probably the name of the maker of the gun, but a web search turns up nothing under that name.

With most stuff like that, the value of the gun may not be high in itself, but if the association can be documented, the value increases greatly, especially for a museum or historical society. Trouble is, provenance, or who owned it when, is hard to come by. Proof of ownership by a land-grant Texan in 1825 would make the gun valuable; if that does not exist, it is simply another story and the gun could have come from a pawn shop last week.

Collectors are always advise to buy the item, not the story, unless the story can be proven. There are jokes about people buying Robert E. Lee's personal M1 carbine, but some real claims have been not much less far fetched.

Jim
 
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