Looking for info and comments

[William Davis]

No question on the Cat Boats orgin or owners. It's the engraving I would like to more about

It's common for Artist to take some license with a boats shape and rig. Just like other Parker engraving Birds Dogs etc. Boat engraving on your gun could be modeled after any one of several common small sail boats used in around Connecticut when the gun was built.

Best reference if you want to have a look is Howard Chappell's " American Small Sailing Craft. Looking at it now couple of boats could have been the artist model. Connecticut River Shad Boat for one. Boats back then were very local in design none built from plans all built by eye each one improving on others in the same area. Sailor could spot where it came from in a glance.

To really pin it down Mystic Seaport would be a good place to ask. Mystic has the largest boat photo collection arround, Web site says 800,000 images including the entire Rosenfeld collection. Bet they would enjoy helping too.

William