December 10-13, 2024 Firearms & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/10/2024
An important collection of Revolutionary War artifacts excavated from various 1777-1783 Continental Army cantonment or campsites in the Hudson River Valley by the Wendell W. Lang, Jr. (1942-1997) during the 1980s-1990s. I first met Wendell at a West Point Chapter meeting of the Company of Military Historians around 1988 when I was curator at Morristown National Historical Park. He brought a Riker mount full of artifacts to the meeting, seeking help in identifying them. There were sword parts, military buttons and gun and accoutrement parts, including a few that I recognized as coming from Continental Army-issue, "New Construction" cartridge boxes (and now in this collection). He kindly allowed me to photograph and measure many of the pieces and brought more for me to study at subsequent meetings. The sites--some bordering West Point, Newburgh and environs--according to what Wendell disclosed, were on private land already undergoing development for housing and other development projects in the 80s and many were fully destroyed by the 90s. Wendell passed away in 1997 and his collection of excavated artifacts went to his good friend and fellow digger, Dean Thomas. Dean kept the collection for a few years, but then decided to sell it. He called various individuals up and told them that he'd be bringing it to the April 1999 Chantilly Civil War Show. Three of us in the know (myself, Bill Henderson and George Juno) were crowded in front of his table as he began to pull Riker cases out of boxes and place them on his table. I was focused primarily on accoutrement and gun parts, soldier's personal items and the like, while Juno was focused on buttons. We'd quickly scan mounts and grab the ones that interested us the most and pile them in stacks on the floor next to us until the collection was largely divided up. The 10 large and one small Riker mounts constitute my portion of the Lang artifacts purchased from Dean more than 20 years ago--still arranged in each Riker mount as acquired--less a small grouping sold to one friend shortly thereafter. There are hundreds of artifacts within the Lang Collection presented here, ranging from musket and sword parts, gun tools, artillery and architectural hardware from huts, cutlery, hatchet heads, shoe and accoutrement buckles, pipes, gaming devices, camp kettle bales and ears, padlocks, grapeshot and musket balls, buttons, scissors, and coins, to name just some of the more extensive categories. JLK