Baby Ames

[cannonmn]

A picker I know brought in a baby Ames cannon, a miniature bronze 6 pdr.  The only marks are Ames (and remainder of the usual Chicopee marks) on one trunnion and "1861" on the other.  No other marks, including muzzle and breech, which I checked carefully.   It is the smallest scaled-down 6-pdr. M1861 I've seen on the market (the smallest I've ever seen are a pair at the USNA museum, I think maybe two feet long each, from the ship IRIS.)  I've seen a number of authentic "4 pounder" and "3 pounder" Ames scaled-down 6 pounders, but this one is smaller yet, 2.7-odd inch bore, and only 36" long, so it is probably a 2 1/2 pounder?  A 3 pdr. is 2.9 inches, for comparison.  It came mounted on a nice repro ship's carriage made within past 30 years or so.  The vent has no copper bouch as do the full-sized M1841's, and the vent is drilled at an acute angle in the direction of the muzzle, noticeably more acute than on CW-era military muzzle-loading cannons.   Don't even have a photo yet, will work on that soon.  I had seen this same cannon when it was owned by a friend in Baltimore about 30 years ago, but he's been dead for over 15 years and I had lost track of it.  The picker bought it from that man's son who had moved far away from Baltimore after he got out of school.  I am sure this piece has no US military or naval connection-must have been a private order.

[KABAR2]

Any photo's?
 

[steelcharge]

This sounds very similar to what you described:
http://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/ames-civil-war-three-pounder-bronze-cannon.-2413-c-9c41d033d8

[cannonmn]

Thanks Steelie, I remember that one coming to auction, I didn' bid because a friend who wanted it kind of talked me out of doing so.  I had mixed feelings about it anyway, due to the way it was plugged etc., historic but not "original" as cast by Ames.

That gun pictured at the link to the Julia auction looks identical to mine in shape, size, even coloration, so now a photo of mine isn't really necessary (is it?)  I've just been very busy and have not had time to get one.  I'll have to look harder, if that one has a rimbase number, mine probably does or did also.  If mine rode is a carriage for a long time, it is possible that any rubbing between rimbase and capsquare could have removed the rimbase number-I will check for wear in that area.

Question:  Look at the middle photo, showing the rimbase in the ink provided above.  Notice the crosshatched finish of the cannon's surface.  Mine is like that all over.  What produces that surface appearance?  I've noticed it before on original Ames bronze cannons. 

Here again is the link to the photos of the one identical to mine (before someone plugged the holes and engraved it):

http://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/ames-civil-war-three-pounder-bronze-cannon.-2413-c-9c41d033d8

I thought I heard somewhere that the Ames Company's business records survived-anyone know where they are now?

[cannonmn]

Regarding Ames Co. records, I asked a friend in the Company of Military Historians who has authored two books on Civil War swords, thinking he'd know.  He referred me to a gent who has been combing through the Ames records, wherever they are.  I'll let you know if he comes up with any info on this very small size Ames cannon.  What I'd like to know is who ordered them.

[cannonmn]

James Leonardo is the person to whom I was referred regarding the Ames family papers/archives.  Yesterday he sent this info (paraphrased):
----------------------------------
...You are the third person who has written hoping to
get information on Ames 3 & 4 pdr
tubes.  Unfortunately the only mention of them I
have so far seen in the Ames papers is in a Nov.
5, 1851 letter from James T. Ames to New York
City arms dealer ALEX HITCHCOCK.  In this letter
Ames sends bill for a 3 pdr just sent (45 cents
per pound), and says that the 4 pdr. tubes will be sent when completed.

         As you know, the U.S. Government never
purchased any of these small tubes and the
thought is that they were all sold to private
parties, including insurance companies, steamboats, and perhaps fur companies....

-------------------------

I'm thinking it might be interesting to see if we could find any old advertising from "Alex Hitchcock" of NYC to see if he catered to any special customer category.

[cannonmn]

After a couple of hours of searching online, I had only found one reference to an Alexander Hitchcock in connection with arms (weapons.)  The info was in a book preview within Google Books.  This book contains something about him,  It seems he (A. Hitchcock) had contracts with both the Federal Government and the State of New York.  Some of his contracts involved converting old flintlock muskets to percussion.

Moller, George D., American Military Shoulder Arms, Volume III: Flintlock Alterations and Muzzleloading Percussion Shoulder Arms, 1840-1865, 2011

[MKlein]

The names are linked together in the sewing machine business in the Ohio Cultivator p. 316
http://books.google.com/books?id=uRVOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA316&dq=ALEX+HITCHCOCK+ames+cannon&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gdMBU_PJOoeCygHMlYCADg&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=ALEX%20HITCHCOCK%20ames%20cannon&f=false
 
Transactions of the American Institute of the City of New-York, Volume 11 pg 485
http://books.google.com/books?id=YylOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA485&dq=Ames+Manufacturing+cannon&hl=en&sa=X&ei=g_YBU4GTOcaiyAGWpoEo&ved=0CEsQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=Ames%20Manufacturing%20cannon&f=false

[cannonmn]

Thanks MKLEIN, those articles provide about 1000 percent more than I knew about the situation, had no idea Ames used an agent in NYC, nor that they ever partnered with anyone to make sewing machines.  Maybe somewhere out there, there's an Ames cannon bearing an inscription like:  "Judged Best Bronze Cannon, NYC, 1852."

[MKlein]

Information is very scarce on that gun. There had to be some type of advertisement letting people know they was selling them.

And how does the Smithsonian lose one???

Steen sure makes some nice ones. They must have measured off an original.