Here is a review of Art DeCamp’s, Pennsylvania “Horns of the Trade” Screw-tip Powder Horns and Their Architecture. The review is  by Mark Preston of Shinin’ Times Powder Horns. Stay tuned and check this blog often for postings of interest by various members of the HCH. Please read on and enjoy the review…

In Pennsylvania “Horns of the Trade” Screw-tip Powder Horns and Their Architecture, Master Horner Art Decamp has delivered a masterpiece.  Art has been a serious student of horn working for over 30 years.  His passion is primarily focused on “trade” horns – those made in a shop or manufactory, as opposed to those “primitive” horns that were often homemade.  He has become one of the leading authorities on Pennsylvania screw tip horns and this volume is the result of his intense interest and decades of study.  For more than 20 years, Art has devoted himself to learning the tools and techniques used to manufacture these historical objects of functional art, and to reproducing accurate representations of the various types.

Art takes the reader through a comprehensive description of horns produced 16 different areas of Pennsylvania; in some cases tracing generations of evolving horn styles within a specific geographical style.  His book is loaded with hundreds of full color photographic plates showing complete specimens of each regional style, and perhaps more importantly and more interesting to any aspiring student of horn working history or budding artisan itching for a challenge, specific details on style, construction, and architecture.  There is delight for the casual student here as well.  Examples of some of the various screw tips exhibit astonishing skill and jaw-dropping flourishes considering the technology of the times.

This volume is an absolute must have for anyone with a love of historical objects, an interest in horn working or simply for those who enjoy the elegance of a well designed and executed piece.  It’s loaded with historical information about those who may have carried the horns as well.  If you don’t have this book in you library, you need to.  If nothing else it will provide you hours of fascinating reading.  If you’re at all interested in horn working the volume explodes with ideas and inspiration.

Art DeCamp at the War College in Carlisle, PA. His book's debut.

Horns of the Trade” Screw-tip Powder Horns and Their Architecture
Published by the Kentucky Rifle Foundation:

• The result of over 1000 hours of scholarly research
• 10 makers identified in 14 different schools
• 108 horns featured with over 400 detailed photographs
• A monumental history book and photo essay

Please click here to order the book from the Kentucky Rifle Foundation.

One of our HCH members, Fred Noesner, has published a book of historic fiction. The book is about a gunsmith, Andrew Annaler, who is blinded in a black powder accident at Ft. Pitt during the French and Indian War. Andrew Annaler, now blind, must find his way to his home in Philadelphia and take up his trade in his father’s gunshop. The tale carries us through the run-up to the Revolutionary War. Mr. Noesner intersperses real articles from The Pennsylvania Gazette to anchor the storyline in history (a very nice touch!)

Most of all, this story is told from a blind person’s point of view in a time when there were no advocates for the blind. If one was blind in 18th  Century Philadelphia and not one of “The Fortunate Ones,” life would have been very hard indeed. This story is also about family life and hope.

Mr. Noesner has a unique perspective as a blind person who loves antique weaponry and has worked as a Colonial historic interpreter at Historic Philadelphia. And he makes powder horns.

As mentioned earlier, Fred Noesner is a member of the guild and has been seen making powder horns at Dixon’s Gunmakers Fair and the HCH annual events at Fort Roberdeau and Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

You can find this 281 page soft cover book at various online venues, but I urge you to give Fred a call and ask for an autographed copy. The price is twenty dollars plus postage and worth every penny!

Fred can be reached at (215) 772-1752 (eastern time zone).