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LOT 3133
Incised James & William Clark Double Signed Golden Age Percussion Conversion Long Rifle with Carved and Silver Ornamented Stock - NSN, 40 cal., 43 1/2 inch octagon bbl., brown/casehardened finish, maple stock. At least two James Clarks were active in the “Golden Age” period of American long rifles: James Clark (1756-1841) of Bedford and Blair Counties in Pennsylvania and James Clark Sr. (1784-1859) of Maryland, Ohio, and Mississippi. A James Clark is also known to have worked at the Harpers Ferry Armory in 1821 and may be one of the two James Clarks above. The second James Clarks’ youngest son William is recorded as having worked in the Clark shop in Lebanon, Ohio, in the 1830s shortly before the family moved to Mississippi. He also had two older sons: Charles and James Jr. This suggests that either the father and son or the two brothers are the most likely makers of this rifle. James Sr. and his brother Hiram apprenticed under George Rizer while in Maryland. Their father Jacob N. Clark (1754-1833) was a soldier during the American Revolution. His apprenticeship was completed in 1805, but a James Clark is listed on voter registration lists in 1798 and 1799 in Ohio and appeared on the Ohio Census in 1810. His older son Charles moved to Natchez, Mississippi, in 1830 where he attempted to find a market for his father’s guns.