I met Ed La Pan in 1973 when I visited his Foundry on Vaughn Road in Hudson Falls, New York just east of Glens Falls when I was looking for some cannonballs for my South Bend Replicas 1/2 scale 8 Inch 1797 Mortar. He showed me around and I saw a few tubes in process and one complete, ready for delivery. It looked very nice. He told me no problem on 4" Dia. cannonballs and completed them a week later. He was busy, but talked a lot about quality and told me about the importance of liner centering. The cannonballs he sold me were at least twice as good as the 40 I later ordered from Slack-Horner Foundry in Longmont, CO. In fact I was so impressed with his attention to detail, that I went to great lengths not to lose those first five. However, I over-shot a cow pasture and lost one in a bog near Kingston, NY and another was lost in a dense thicket behind the 300 yard butts at a range near Clarksville, NY. I DO NOT shoot the 3 which remain and are pictured below.
Regards,
Tracy
The front cover of the LA PAN'S FOUNDRY brochure I received from Ed La Pan in 1973. Yes, my cannonballs have a little rust, but it's almost a miracle that I still have them at all. They are indoors now and undergoing a once a decade cleaning and repainting.
Plastickosmd, I agree with Max Caliber and believe the cannon you have is pictured here on page 7 of La Pan's brochure. The photo caption is: PATT. No. 6A ON FIELD CARRIAGE WITH 22" ALUMINUM WHEELS. The hardware looks like it's an exact match too. It's a very good looking cannon.