Painted Trade Muskets in Africa. A Bit of Help Please.

[Diablo Jon]

Hi All,
        I was planning on painting up some Yao for my Darkest Africa project. In his book on Central Africa Chris Peers suggests that red painted trade muskets were common among the Yao. Problem is I can't find any info on painted trade muskets in Africa. mostly I'd like to know if the whole musket was painted red, just the wood, or just the metal? What sort of red was the paint a bright crimson, dark burgundy some sort of red varnish that just stained the wood. At the moment I'm coming up a total blank so if anyone has any info it would be greatly received

Cheers Jon

[WillieB]

Not what you're looking for but trade muskets were often painted to make them more attractive. These are American trade guns.



It says 'Also available in Red or spotted'

[Diablo Jon]

Thanks for the reply WiilieB

wow those are err bright. 

Assuming African trade muskets where similar its only the wood that is painted then. I wonder if the red used was as bright as that blue? A bit more rooting around the net suggests trade muskets from Britain, in Africa, were painted Black and red was first used on Dane guns traded on the west African coast.

[WillieB]

Thanks for the reply WiilieB

wow those are err bright. 

Assuming African trade muskets where similar its only the wood that is painted then. I wonder if the red used was as bright as that blue? A bit more rooting around the net suggests trade muskets from Britain, in Africa, were painted Black and red was first used on Dane guns traded on the west African coast.

Just read somewhere the red is described as Oxide Red. Which, if I look at my oil paint tubes, a rather vivid but brownish hue.

[Diablo Jon]

Just read somewhere the red is described as Oxide Red. Which, if I look at my oil paint tubes, a rather vivid but brownish hue.

Thanks again mate that gives me something to work with.

[FifteensAway]

I live near a place that does a lot of reproduction of the Trapper Era of the American West and I've never heard of such muskets - and find those blue items completely beyond belief (though they might have been popular had they been available - or not, see below).  I knew a number of the local Mountain Men re-enactors and I'd love to know their take on this.  Not saying what is posted isn't accurate, just profoundly defies my credulity.  Does get me itching to dive deeper. 

I would far more readily believe such might have gone down in Africa but in the American West those brightly colored guns would get you killed, almost certainly.  Stand out like crazy.

Oxide red, yeah, that I can believe.  That strange blue?  I want profuse documentary support - period documentation, too.

[Diablo Jon]

The blue is pretty funky. I haven't really looked at the America but from what I can tell in the case of African trade muskets the paint was there to try and hide the poor quaility of the weapons ( unseasoned wood for the stocks, poor quaility metal work). Apparently powder horns where also painted red and the flints black.

[mithril]

trade muskets for native americans tended towards decorative scrollwork or plates, usually with gilded detail. you also saw a lot of things like patterns of tacks added to the wood of the stock
like so:



generally the guns were lousy, they were decorated in whatever fashion would make them look fancier and more attractive to the people who were going to buy them. african cultures tended to rather like bright colors, so it makes sense that ones sold on that continent would go that route.

[italwars]

Despite any historical evidence ..which are in any case quite unreliable ..I would leave the muskets in wood natural colour..historical miniatures are a compromise with reality but they have to be appealing ...blue muskets are simply ridiculous ..maybe good just for a fantasy game..I would say ridiculous even if their historical usage was true

[Diablo Jon]

OK I've found a Belgian made African trade musket held by a museum in Australia. This one is painted black the piece on the bottom of the stock is apparently a carved lion with glass bead eyes and painted red. So it seems, as WillieB suggested, the red is a red brown rather than a bright red.



I've found a couple examples of black painted trade muskets to. In terms of painting miniatures I'll certainly look to add some red and black trade muskets to my African miniatures as something a little different.

[carlos marighela]

Given that trade muskets were frequently manufactured from spare parts or bits of older, broken or discarded guns and were typically made as cheaply as possible, to maximise profit, I’d be sceptical as to how many were lavished with coats of paint. Most existing items seem to be plain wood.

[Digits]

Except to say, adding a coat of paint would mask all those nicks and burrs that inevitably cover a well used or knocked about musket.  And when we think “lavished”, I suspect any cheap paint would be used to disguise it enough.

As a reeacting musketeermyself, I was always re staining or touching up knocks in the woodwork.

[WillieB]

Despite any historical evidence ..which are in any case quite unreliable ..I would leave the muskets in wood natural colour..historical miniatures are a compromise with reality but they have to be appealing ...blue muskets are simply ridiculous ..maybe good just for a fantasy game..I would say ridiculous even if their historical usage was true

What I found
In April 1775 after word of events at Concord and Lexington Mass., Royal Governor Lord Dunmore, fearing insurrection by the townspeople, removed powder from the magazine. The Boy's Militia Company of Williamsburg, in response to the governor's action, broke into the magazine and removed blue painted trade guns. When they entered, they set off a trap gun which wounded several of the boys. No information survives on how many guns were taken or the fate of the wounded boys.
 Robert Greenhow's recollection of Williamsburg c1775:

(Robert was the son of John Greenhow, a merchant who operated a store in Williamsburg at this time.)
 

"the youth of Williamsburg formed themselves into a military corps and chose Henry Nicholson as their Capt.; that on Dunmore's flight from Williamsburg, they repaired to the magazine and armed themselves with blue painted stock guns kept for the purpose of distributing among the Indians, and equip't as the minute men volunteers in military garb, that is to say in hunting shirts, trousers, bucktails, cockades and "Liberty or Death" suspended to their breasts as their motto; that they could

and did perform all the evolutions of the manual exercise far better than the soldiers who were daily arriving from the adjacent counties; that their captain, Henry Nicholson, was about 14 years old."

[Metternich]

Here are pictures of what several auction houses describe as African trade muskets :

https://www.sellingantiques.co.uk/photosnew/dealer_originalretro/dealer_originalretro_superhighres_1535291013824-0309062717.jpg

https://images.proxibid.com/AuctionImages/4719/136454/FullSize/1079.jpg

https://dygtyjqp7pi0m.cloudfront.net/i/20008/19090515_1.jpg?v=8D107EA4C0CCE80

https://images.gunsinternational.com/listings_sub/acc_87874/gi_101239713/COLONIAL-AFRICAN-BRITISH-Trade-Flintlock-Musket_101239713_87874_63F4F36B62F9CAC7.jpg

https://picturearchive.gunauction.com/907160311/10210788/flintlock%20african.jpg_thumbnail0.jpg

[Hacksaw]

The brightly painted trade guns in the Colonies are 18th Century pieces and reflective of that times tastes, the later Northwest Trade Guns (fur-trade era) to my knowledge not being painted.

The Colonial era trade guns were very common, at one point being known as "Carolina Guns" due to the 10s of thousands imported into the Colonies, many of them into the - you guessed it - Carolinas. They were traded to Indians and sold to Colonists being the least expensive gun of the time. They were smoothbores of aprox .60 calibre, suitable for ball or shot. Low price also meant low quality, including some very poor grades of wood used for the stocks. Paint was often used to cover up that wood as well as apply a layer of protection from the elements.

Which leads us to the colour. For a time, amongst the Natives, the various painted guns were quite popular. The blue, a red oxide, and also a yellow are known. That was used in various combinations such as a red base with yellow dots or "lightning bolts" (short squiggly lines) or even vine work - Search for "Bumford Trade Gun" and you will find some pictures showing the vines on one of the very few guns remaining today.

I don't believe that the French trade guns (Fusil-de-chasse) of the period were painted, so they lacked the "bling" of the English guns.

19th Century trade guns were more commonly painted black, but the stuff meant for Africa, indeed often being made up of surplus bits forced into the semblance of a musket, would often receive a paint job harking back to the Carolina guns of a century before to make it appealing to customers. As the hot rod guys would say "If it don't go, chrome it".

And thats probably more than you wanted to know or even cared about.

Cheers!