Item Number: A01318

Item Title: Very special 13in mortar ball from the Revolutionary War, almost certainly from Yorktown

Price:

Shipping: Not included

Provenance: US

Type:

Size:

Sabot:

Fuse:

Book:

Location Recovered: Deaccessioned from the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, VA

Description:This shell is almost certainly from the Battle of Yorktown. The Siege of Yorktown was a decisive victory by a combined force of American Continental Army troops led by General George Washington and French Army troops led by the Comte de Rochambeau over a British army commanded by British peer and Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis. The culmination of the Yorktown campaign, the siege proved to be the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary War in the North American region, as the surrender by Cornwallis, and the capture of both him and his army, prompted the British government to negotiate an end to the conflict.

This shell was deaccessioned from the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia -- very near where the Siege of Yorktown took place and one of the very few places where 13in mortars were employed. There simply aren't many other places it could've come from.

I acquired it at an authorized deaccessioning auction in 2012.

This shell has two intact lifting rings. These are of the period and almost never found intact.

This is arguably a unique item and very special to the founding of our country.

It is a big shell, and I am not going to attempt to ship it given the size and also the fact that UPS has lost 5 of my large shipments in the past year. Not sure how many 7" Brookes or 6.4" Tredegars they have rolling around their warehouses, but they can't find mine despite accurate weights, measurements and photos. I am going to be really pissed off when these items turn up on eBay after someone has gotten them from a UPS auction.

Enough of that rant...I will be going to Dalton at the end of January if the show still goes as well as to Mansfield at the end of April. I drive around a lot and would be happy to drop it off somewhere along the way. I have a truck now that I didn't have in 2012 when I got it and it messed up the springs on my car!