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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;springfld.arsenal, post: 291179, member: 54&quot;]Well I guess I should share.&nbsp; You can see that most of what I used comes from the markings.</p><p><br /></p><p>——</p><p><br /></p><p>I first saw this piece or one identical to it at a Civil War show in the Kenya Shrine Temple in Fairfax, VA in the 1980’s. The only marking I recall is “1862.” I don’t recall a wood pedestal. I didn’t like the piece then because it was overpriced for what I thought it was, either an inventor’s model or some machine part altered slightly to resemble a cannon. The seller wanted $2500. for the “Civil War” artifact. I didn’t think the “1862” mark was authentic. Since then, if this is the same piece, the rest of the markings have appeared. One person on the forum I pm’d about this did think the marks looked newer than the piece. I think they were inked or painted to conceal their newness. Fortunately for collectors, whoever had the blackened markings engraved didn’t use authentic marking syntax for either the US Navy or C. Alger, Boston. Nor did they add any Navy proof/inspection marks. Also there’s no percussion lock, a standard feature for all US Navy ordnance of that period. How many pieces of bronze ordnance did Alger make during the Civil War? I’m not sure there were any but I haven’t researched it to be sure. How many muzzle loading bronze “signal cannons” did the US Navy acquire during the entire history of that Service? I think the answer may be zero but again I’m guessing; I’ve been through everything the National Archives has on US Navy ordnance and haven’t seen any such records, except for a pair of small mortars called “sounding mortars” used on some coastal survey expeditions ca. 1850. We’d call them thunder mugs. Does anyone really think the US Navy would be buying small signal cannons in 1862, given the grave war crisis the US was in at that time? But if someone gave me that item, I’d certainly accept it. I really like the wood pedestal which I’d use to mount whatever model cannon looked best on it. I’d analyze the metal “signal gun” and if it turned out to be a modified machine part as I suspect, I’d sell it for scrap.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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