IN 1856, when Robert Forgan first began making his own clubs, he stamped their crowns "R. Forgan" in large block letters.  In 1863, after he was appointed clubmaker to H.R.H the Prince of Wales, Forgan began to stamp each of his clubs with the Prince of Wales plume directly below his name. The example here has the Large letter stamp and does not have the POW plume, which identifies the club as made between 1856 and 1863.

This 44-inch play club looks much like a Hugh Philp club. The clubhead is long and graceful, quite reminiscent of the clubheads made by Philp, and the face measures only 1 inch in depth.  The similarities between Philp's work and Forgan's work are not surprising. In 1852 Forgan went to work for Philp and had the opportunity to learn from the master clubmaker.  After Philp died in 1856, Forgan took over Philp's business and made clubs under his own name. 

Early Pre-POW Forgan clubs are exceptionally hard to come by and among the most desirable. This example is solid and still has its original dark redish-brown finish, whipping, shaft, and grip. In the accompanying images, the club looks almost black, but it is not black. it is redish-brown as mentioned. At some point in its history years ago, the entire head was given a coat of varnish that has darkened over time. This was done to help preserve the club, should the golfer using it get caught in bad weather. The varnish has also darkened the appearance of the finish.  And having said all of this, the varnish is a non-issue for me.  I was unable to procure an Early Forgan play club or spoon of this quality back in my collecting days, and was lucky to procure a Forgan pre-POW putter.  See TCA2 Vol 1, p 70-73.

Another historical aspect of this club is the shaft is stamped "Rt Forgan".  Forgan did not make it a practice to stamp his shafts until much later in his career, closer to the late 1880s/early 1890s.  It is most likely that Forgan used this club—that he made it for himself.  There is no proof of this, but the shaft IS stamped with his name decades before he made it a practice to stamp his shafts. In addition, it had long been the practice of some owners to stamp their names or initials on the shafts of their clubs. And Forgan's use of an "Rt Forgan" stamp and not an "R. Forgan" stamp as found on all his clubs (and many of his later shafts) is a further indication of his personal use. A name on any other shaft made by any other maker during this period of time would be that of the owner.