November 7-8, 2018 Edged Weapons, Armor, & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/7/2018
John Barker was born in Pomfret, Connecticut on December 18, 1756. He served in the Continental Army as a private and orderly sergeant. Barker fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill (Breed's Hill). He also accompanied Benedict Arnold on his ill-fated Quebec Expedition and arrived at Fort Ticonderoga in the spring of 1776. Mount Independence was fortified in July of 1776, which most likely accounts for the reference on this horn. Barker served with General Sullivan in his Indian campaign in 1777, which targeted Tories and their Iroquois allies, and with Colonel Alden at Cherry Valley, New York. After the Revolution Barker married Esther Richardson on July 9, 1786 in Leominster, Massachusetts. They had 14 children, 11 of whom survived to maturity. They moved to Stoddard, New Hampshire sometime between 1790 and 1799. Esther died there in July of 1806, and five months later Barker married Sally Warren (née Guild) and had four children with her. He applied for his U.S. Revolutionary War Survivor's Pension from Stoddard in 1819. Barker passed away there on March 15, 1834. The horn itself has a 13" curved body with four stages, each edge decorated with serrations and a relief ring around the tapered spout, decorated en suite. The flat wooden butt is carved with a hex sign in a circle and the initials "AI" and "NW". The plug is fastened with a series of wooden pins. The horn depicts a city view labelled "NEW YORK", as well as a river and two forts and a ship of war. The inscription reads "JOHN BARKER HIS/ HORN & MADE AT MOUNT IN/DEPENdANC NOVEMBER 18/ DAY OF 1776". Below the view of New York City, the horn is also inscribed "JOEL KCEL". The last name "KCEL" is probably a phonetic spelling for "Castle", almost certainly Joel Castle, born in 1751 in Waterbury, Connecticut, about 70 miles from Pomfret where Barker was born five years later. Castle joined a Connecticut Revolutionary regiment raised by Col. Charles Burrill of the Continental army and marched under the command of General Phillip Schuyler to Fort George and then to Fort Ticonderoga. After serving in various engagements, he was at Mount Independence in late summer or early autumn of 1776, when Barker was also there. It is certain they must have met, and, given their common Connecticut backgrounds and the strong regional allegiances alive then, it is likely they formed a friendship. There is also a place where the carver began NEW YORK, but got only as far as NE, and put the full title elsewhere. There is also a branded monogram, a conjoined AB that appears on both the horn and its wooden end plug. It could have been a Barker family or, more likely, a regimental brand (each regiment had its own brand for its horses' hooves.) CONDITION: Very good. The horn is uncleaned and retains a try surface and a honey patina. There is some wear from carrying and one 1/2 square that has been intentionally dished out to remove something on the horn. The spout has one minor chip and a couple hairline cracks. This is a newly discovered horn in as found condition.