Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
September 1779
Primary Source Reference:
Du Simitière Memorandum Books, Library of Congress, fol. 46v
Additional Source Text:
"The stock is inlaid with Ivory and mother pearl cut in a variety of figures representing animals, foliages, & other ornaments. The breech is very small compared to the rest of the piece & the lock is very large & [complicated?] with springs. This curious weapon belonged once to Lord Dunmore sometime Governor of Virginia, who had an armory of all sort of curious [and new?] weapons, which in his flight he left behind, and they were afterwards sold, and my friend purchased this and several more."
Notes:
The donor was Isaac Zane, Jr. (1743-1795), a Philadelphia Quaker who had moved to the Shenandoah Valley about 1767, owned and operated the Marlboro Iron Works about twelve miles south of Winchester, Virginia. During the war years Zane manufactured four- and six-pound cannon, shot, kettles, salt pans, and stoves for the American forces. He also served in the House of Burgesses from 1773 to 1776, the Virginia conventions from 1774 to 1776, and the general assembly from 1776 to 1795.
