GUEST: The powder horn came through my mother's family.

The stories vary it was, uh, perhaps a wedding gift to my grandmother and grandfather, or may have come later, possibly from an auction or sale.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: But it's been in the family, that we know of, for about 70 years.

APPRAISER: Hm, well, it's a really nice example of a powder horn that was made in the Boston area in 1775.

And it was made during the siege of Boston.

After the events of Lexington and Concord in, on April 19, 1775, there was a massive influx of troops from across New England that descended on Boston.

They, they built a series of fortifications around the, the town to blockade the British army in the towns so that they couldn't get back out into the countryside to try to capture more supplies or disrupt military activities.

One of the major fortifications in the town was Roxbury.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And we actually see the term "Roxbury Camps."

And then there's this really simple but interesting outline of a fortification.

Now, on... this side, we have something very interesting.

An inscription that says "by Abimeleck Uncus."

Abimeleck Uncus was a soldier who was serving in Colonel Timothy Danielson's regiment in 1775.

GUEST: Oh, wow.

APPRAISER: I actually found a muster roll from October of 1775... APPRAISER: ...where Abimeleck Uncus appears on that roll.

APPRAISER: And he appears on the roll as being from the town of Norwich in Connecticut.

GUEST: Oh, my gosh, oh.

APPRAISER: Yeah.

In addition to that, I can tell you that he was Native American.

He was a Mohegan, in fact.

In 1777, he enlisted for three years in the 1st Connecticut Regiment.

Significantly, he's mentioned as being sometimes on Indian duty, or working with Indians.

I can only think of a, a small handful of other horns that were likely decorated by Native Americans, and most of those are of a generation earlier.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: I think it's a really interesting, I think, important piece of, of American history.

Have you ever had it appraised?

GUEST: Uh, my mother's estate was appraised about six years ago.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: And, um, it was appraised for $5,000.

APPRAISER: Okay.

Well, I think that in today's market, uh, siege of Boston powder horns are fairly popular right now.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: This powder horn at auction could easily sell in the $8,000 to $12,000 range.

GUEST: Mm, right.

APPRAISER: And I think it has a really good potential of bringing more because of the history.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Because of Abimeleck's association.

GUEST: Well, that's, that's wonderful.

That's amazing.

Well, it-it My grandmother would be so pleased.

(chuckles)