Superb & Incredibly Sought After, US Pre-Civil War Staghorn Antler Gripped Bowie Knife, London Made By Joseph Buck, Freeman of The City of London Circa 1830's. German Silver Crossguard & Hilt Panel. With Its Original German Silver Mounted Brown Scabbard

This is a simply superb pre-American Civil War period clipped back blade Bowie knife, complete in its original scabbard, maker marked by Joseph Buck of Tottenham Court Road, London. A very rare maker of Bowie knives, from around 1833 at Tottenham Court Rd London, until he moved his main addressed premises in 1836 to Newgate St., and again in 1856

Photos in the gallery of a Sun Fire Insurance Policy record register, from 5 November, 1834 (policy 1187028) revealed business owner “Joseph Buck of No. 245 Tottenham Court Road, Saw, Plane, File and Tool Maker.”
Further pictures in the gallery of a personal photo of Joseph Buck himself, who was awarded “The Freedom of the City of London", and a photo of his admission papers as a ‘freeman’ on 20 January, 1836. All of the above are copies for informative provenance only.

Traditional, and original, American pre Civil War period, London made, US import Bowie knife, with clip back blade, maker marked by its very rare Bowie maker, Buck of Tottenham Court Rd, {London}. All the best and most collectable antique Bowies used in the pre-Civil War, the war period, and the Wild West era, were actually British imports, mostly from Sheffield, but the rarest were made in London, as is this one.

The "first" Bowie knife was reportedly a simple hunting knife, designed by Rezin Bowie for his brother James Bowie {world famous hero of the Alamo seige in Texas} and forged by blacksmith Jesse Clifft from an old file around 1827 in Louisiana. While Rezin Bowie claimed the design and his granddaughter corroborated seeing Clifft make it, the exact appearance and maker are debated, with James Black also claiming to have made the first Bowie knife for Jim Bowie. The knife gained fame after James Bowie used his version in the 1827 Sandbar Fight, leading to widespread popularity and numerous variations, including this Bowie, made just a few years after their invention and use by Jim Bowie.

The blade is very good indeed, nicely edged and tipped, the nickel hilt mounts are in superb condition, as are the staghorn grip plates. The brown scabbard has its original nickel throat mount with frog stud, and overall in very nice order indeed

The old traditional early Bowie knife was both a hunting knife and a tool. With it, one could clear a path, hack a sapling, dig a hole, or butcher game. In the siege of Bexar in 1835, Texans used Bowie knives to dig through roofs and walls and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Mexicans. The knife was not designed or balanced for throwing.

Southerners replaced their sword canes with Bowie knives, and sought expert cutlers, North and South, to craft fine blades. The cutlers usually were surgical and dental instrument makers in large cities. Most signed their works; Peter Rose and John D. Chevalier were prominent in New York, English & Huber and Clarenbach & Herder in Philadelphia, Reinhardt in Baltimore, Thomas Lamb in Washington, Dufilho in New Orleans, Alfred Hunter in Newark, Marks and Rees in Cincinnati, Daniel Searles in Baton Rouge, and Rees Fitzpatrick in Natchez. Henry Schively also made improved versions in various styles. English cutlers in Sheffield, who had dominated the American cutlery market since colonial times, took advantage of the fascination with the Bowie knife. They capitalized on vivid reports by English journalists of murder and mayhem in America, involving the defenders of such heinous crimes and assaults, using just such as this beautifully made knife.

A trickle of Sheffield Bowie knives in the early 1830s developed into a flood before the Civil War. Bowie knife collections indicate that only about one in ten was American made. English cutlers applied clever motifs and blade etchings that appealed to American tastes and patriotic spirit. Examples include such labels as "American Bowie Knife," "Texas Ranger Knife," "Arkansas Toothpick," "Patriot's Self Defender," "Death to Abolition," "Death to Traitors," "Americans Never Surrender," "Rio Grande Camp Knife," and "I'm A Real Ripper." Handle and guard mountings also carried symbols and slogans with American appeal. Cutlers attached handles of ivory, pearl, tortoise shell, black and gray buffalo horn, India stag horn, and fine woods. Handle pommels of nickel silver featured horse heads, shells, and geometric designs. Manufacturers generally signed their blades and added such distinctive trademarks as I*XL, B4ANY, and XCEED. At the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1846, the Bowie knife was a popular weapon in Texas. Texas Rangers under Jack (John Coffee) Hayes and Ben McCulloch carried Bowie knives and Colt Dragoon pistols into battle. Knife blades stamped and etched with Mexican War motifs appeared. Zachary Taylor, mounted on Old Whitey, was a favorite subject. Bust etchings included "Old Zach," "General Taylor Never Surrenders," "Palo Alto," and "Buena Vista." Pommels featured a Taylor bust with a patriotic slogan.

In the late 1830s an alarmed public in several Southern states demanded stringent laws to curtail the increasing "rule of the Bowie knife." In January 1838 the Tennessee legislature passed "An Act to Suppress the Sale and Use of Bowie Knives and Arkansas Toothpicks in this State." However, the sale of the knives continued to accelerate, due to it being the ideal defensive sidearm against nefarious attack, reaching a peak after the Civil War. During that war, crude blacksmith made Bowie knives were popular among Confederate soldiers. Some had large, wide blades, like those of artillery shorts words; most were unmarked. The Confederates considered the knife an essential accoutrements in the early months of the war, but as the conflict wore on the knife was replaced with the bayonet. The knives had hickory or hardwood handles and iron mounts, and were worn in heavy leather sheaths with throats and tips of tin, iron, or brass. Blades had scratch engravings and crude acid etchings, with such patriotic motifs as "Sunny South," "Confederate States Defender," or "Death to Yankees." A few Confederate Bowie knives were made by experienced cutlers and exhibited excellent workmanship. Union soldiers generally wore Sheffield or British made Bowie knives.

"In the history of American arms," wrote historian Harold L. Peterson (1958), "three weapons stand out above all the rest: the Kentucky rifle, the Colt's revolver, and the Bowie knife." Each became a part of the "Great American Legend."

Overall in scabbard approx. 13 inches long, Blade approx. 8 inches long.
The blade is 90% excellent bright, yet it does have some small salt-and-pepper pitting around the makers mark, possibly caused by a non-removed thumbprint, that has corroded, as they often do if not polished off, over a long period of time, and at the ricasso there a little pitting as well on both sides, just below the nickel crossguard. An area often missed when blades are cleaned before being re-offered into their scabbards.

It is a not often realised reaction of steel to the simplest of issues, fingerprints. Fingerprints contain highly corrosive acids that if left un-removed from raw polished steel will continue its highly invasive corroding effect, often for years, that results in localised pitting of this very nature. Probably the most famous Colt revolver in the collecting world is known as the ‘Thumb Print Colt Walker’. A revolver valued today in the millions of dollars, due to its simple, corroded thumbprint pitting, on the surface of its otherwise fine finish of the pistol. The Colt Walker Dragoon revolvers were made for a very small but significant large calibre dragoon pistol order by Capt Walker of the Texas Rangers in the 1850’s. Most were over loaded with powder {a significant design fault} that they exploded in service, so very few survive, and are thus highly prized. But one, has its incredibly distinctive ‘thumbprint corrosion’ damage, and is so iconic that it now is the pistol of legend within the collecting world.

Code: 25905