November 17, 2020 Early Arms & Militaria: Age of Exploration, Empire & Revolution
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/17/2020
The forged-steel, pike head is 16-5/8" long, the spear portion being 10-5/8" long and the langets, or side-straps, account for the remaining 6". Each langet has three evenly-spaced holes to accommodate the iron rivets that secure the head to the shaft. The spear portion of the head is spike-shaped: four-sided or square in cross-section profile, it is 9/16" wide at its widest, tapering upward to a point. The pike is 95-1/2" long overall, inclusive of the head. The pike shaft appears to be of ash, circular in profile, with a diameter of 1-3/8" near the head, tapering gradually to a diameter of 1-1/4" near the base or foot of the shaft. The wood shaft has been inlet to accommodate the langets of the head. The entire pike is painted with white lead, supporting an early period of manufacture and use, 90% or more of which remains. There are traces of a red ochre paint underneath the white lead paint on the head and the shaft area between the langets, indicating that the head area was first primed in this color or the pike may have originally have been painted red.
The pike is of a form known to collectors (albeit incorrectly) as the “U. S. Navy Model of 1816 Boarding Pike”. However, it should be noted that while the US Navy contracted for a great number of boarding pikes during 1816, there was no “official” 1816 pattern. Instead, these spike-headed pikes were a continuation of a type already in use by at least the War of 1812 (three examples of which survive with provenance to the 1813 brig USS Niagara alone). Many of the known War of 1812 examples are so identified because they bear the marks of wartime inspectors, but in overall form, they are nearly identical to this pike, which is impossible to firmly date. Suffice it to say, pikes of this form remained in the naval arsenal from the War of 1812 to the Spanish-American War, although this example was probably produced sometime between 1812-1865, when Federal manufacture of this pattern seems to have all but ceased. CONDITION: Overall very good; there is some light pitting on the tip of the spear where the paint has flaked off; 13" up from the shaft foot or base is a 2-1/2" x 1" gouge that is overpainted in white lead, indicating that this minor loss clearly occurred during the "working period" of the arm. JLK
Item Dimensions: 96"