After 65 years, stolen powder horn returns to museum
This is not the powder horn in question, but it is another fine example of a hand-engraved early American horn. This one, carved by Jonathan Gardner in 1776, is part of the permanent collection at the Concord Mass Museum. Photo by Victorgrigas, licensed under under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication
The 1760 horn, originally owned by Greenfield resident Jonathan Smead, went missing from the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association’s Memorial Hall Museum in Deerfield in 1949.
It was actually found in the 1950s by Longmeadow resident James Richardson, who as a child, loved to scour through the town dump for unusual items.
The Recorder reports that when he found it, he had no idea it was stolen. Richardson, now 77, kept it for decades until he took it to be appraised recently and found out about its rightful owner.
The etchings on the horn include Smead’s name, the date he commissioned the carvings, and images of deer, mermaids, ships and fish.
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Information from: The (Greenfield, Mass.) Recorder, http://www.recorder.com
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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
This is not the powder horn in question, but it is another fine example of a hand-engraved early American horn. This one, carved by Jonathan Gardner in 1776, is part of the permanent collection at the Concord Mass Museum. Photo by Victorgrigas, licensed under under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication
