Sharps Receipt

[Coal Creek Griff]

For those of you who like to recreate old documents, here is a Sharps Rifle receipt.  I took an original found online and removed all of the writing.  I didn't try to make it clean and white, so it looks kind of aged.  I like this stuff and I thought that others might be interested.

CC Griff

[Tsalagidave]

Thanks Coal Creek. It looks great. Just for fun, I printed t up and filled it out.

-Dave

[Abilene]

Excellent!

[Coal Creek Griff]

Thanks Coal Creek. It looks great. Just for fun, I printed t up and filled it out.

-Dave

Nice job! That looks cool.

CC Griff

[tocnaza]

Great job! Thanks for sharing us!

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[shrapnel]

Here is a genuine post card to Sharps from Barney Day a real historic buffalo hunter. How does this stuff survive?

[Professor Marvel]

Thanks for the rcpt, Griff. I will download and make some.

Do you by chance have a link to the original one filled out?

yhs
prof marvel

[nativeshootist]

I can read cursive. But 19th century cursive Is something else. Can someone type up the card that shrapnel shared?

[Professor Marvel]

this is the best I can come up with:

Send me a state
ment of what I
owe you, $36 (fer?)
and Il'e pay
you if I never
cock another Gun
Let me know if
you can make me
a 36 Caliber (Gun?)
an inch & 5/8 ball
shoot 70 grains
powder, length of
barrell 30 inches
one turn in 20
inche, 14 pounds
weight.
      Barney Day

[Coal Creek Griff]

Thanks for the rcpt, Griff. I will download and make some.

Do you by chance have a link to the original one filled out?

yhs
prof marvel

It was from an Ebay ad.  Since I kind of "stole" the image by copying it from the ad, I've been reluctant to publish the original photo.  On the other hand, as of last night the receipt was still listed on Ebay.  If one were to do an Ebay search for, say, "Sharps Rifle", sort by price with the highest price first, then start scrolling down, one might come up with a very similar-looking receipt...

CC Griff

[nativeshootist]

.36-70? Huh. Seems different.

[kwilliams1876]

The 36 caliber description probably describes the old way of measuring the bore diameter. 36-38 balls to the pound equals roughly .50 caliber.
kw

[Tsalagidave]

this is the best I can come up with:

Send me a state
ment of what I
owe you, $36 (fer?)
and Il'e pay
you if I never
cock another Gun
Let me know if
you can make me
a 36 Caliber (Gun?)
an inch & 5/8 ball
shoot 70 grains
powder, length of
barrell 30 inches
one turn in 20
inche, 14 pounds
weight.
      Barney Day

I thought I would be so clever and translate but it looks like you beat me to it Prof. (Send me a statement of what I owe you $36 fer (for), and Il'e (I'll) pay you if I never cock another gun.
Let me knwo (know) if you can mail me a 36 Calibre gun an inch & 5/8 ball, shoot 70 grains powder, length of barrel 30 inches one turn in 20 inches, 14 pounds weight.

Barney Day.)

There's good penmanship and bad.  His really sucks. Great historical piece though.

-Dave

[Professor Marvel]

Whilst there "were" about 400 .36 caliber Sharps Business rifles built on the 1850-ish percussion platform, it is most likely that
the Honorable Monsieur Day meant "36 bore" which translates to ~ .50 calibre.....

and, yes, Dave,  his penmanship is most attrocious.

yhs
prof (spellcheek) marbel

[shrapnel]

There's good penmanship and bad.  His really sucks. Great historical piece though.

-Dave

Here is another document from a Sharps dealer in Bozeman, Montana Territory, his penmanship is quite good...

[Tsalagidave]

Whilst there "were" about 400 .36 caliber Sharps Business rifles built on the 1850-ish percussion platform, it is most likely that
the Honorable Monsieur Day meant "36 bore" which translates to ~ .50 calibre.....

and, yes, Dave,  his penmanship is most attrocious.

yhs
prof (spellcheek) marbel

Of course, 36 balls to the pound. I should have caught that and did not in this case he is talking a 50/70 perhaps. Nice catch Prof. I missed the ball.

-Dave

[nativeshootist]

"His really sucks."  that's a good one

[DB Books]

I think if the feller slowed down while writing in cursive, we could translate it(!) into something readable. And I thought my chicken-scratchin's were bad. Cool to see just the same.

[Coal Creek Griff]

I'm bringing this old thread to the surface again because I was playing around with the Sharps receipt that I had worked on before.  I enlarged it and completed it to the best of my ability based upon somewhat limited research as to how the Sharps company would have written the receipt.  I also enlarged the form somewhat and tried to darken or sharpen some of the features.  I completed it as if it was for the Shiloh Sharps that I have in the works.  I'll probably include a little more notation after I pick up the gun.

I'm also going to attach another blank version of the form in case anyone is interested.  Lastly, since enough time has elapsed since I saw the original being offered for sale, I'm going to attach two versions of that: the original screen capture and another version where I darkened it to help with reading the original handwriting (it doesn't look as good, but it is easier to read).  I'll comment that I can't make out all of what the original clerk wrote on the receipt.  Sharps called their basic sporting rifle an "Octagonal Rifle" and I believe that "ST" stands for "set trigger" which was an extra option.  I'm not sure what other options are listed.

Hopefully others find this as interesting as I do.

Griff

[Capt Quirk]

Reading that old script is almost as hard as trying to recreate it.