Author Topic: Arnie Dowd - paneled butt plate  (Read 2484 times)

Offline wildcatter

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Arnie Dowd - paneled butt plate
« on: November 08, 2018, 06:28:49 AM »
Arnie did an article in 1991 or 1992 titled "The Paneled Butt Plate School of Southern Kentuckies" for the American Society of Arms Collectors. Anyone have that article or a .pdf of that article they would be willing to share, I would greatly appreciate it.

Matt
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Offline Ky-Flinter

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Ron Winfield

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Offline Tim Crosby

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Re: Arnie Dowd - paneled butt plate
« Reply #2 on: November 08, 2018, 04:04:36 PM »
 This is to good to lose, I'm going to move it over to "Antiques". Thanks for posting it Ron.

   Tim
« Last Edit: November 08, 2018, 06:12:07 PM by Tim Crosby »

Offline wildcatter

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Re: Arnie Dowd - paneled butt plate
« Reply #3 on: November 08, 2018, 04:55:42 PM »
Really appreciate it Ron!!

Matt
You have to play this game like somebody just hit your mother with a two-by-four.

realtorone

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Re: Arnie Dowd - paneled butt plate
« Reply #4 on: November 09, 2018, 04:37:59 AM »
My A.S.Jones Half Stock which is thought to have been made in Paducah Ky. See  Kentucky Gunmakers by Shelby W. Gallien has silver paneled buttplate as well as other silver which is engraved.This rifle was found in the Bibb family of Montgomery Al where it most likely had resided since new.  One of the Bibb brothers was the Governor of Alabama and another was a federal Judge just after the civil war. Look close at the barrel as the front of each flat is scolloped where the round portion starts except the top flat which runs all the way to the cut for the bullet starter. The barrel is stamped A.Chinn who was a rifle smith before and after the Civil War.

Offline wildcatter

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Re: Arnie Dowd - paneled butt plate
« Reply #5 on: November 09, 2018, 09:13:34 PM »
George,

Would love to see pictures of it!

Matt
You have to play this game like somebody just hit your mother with a two-by-four.

realtorone

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Re: Arnie Dowd - paneled butt plate
« Reply #6 on: November 09, 2018, 10:51:20 PM »
Its pictures in Shelby Book Vol I, 4 pictures on page 197.

 

Offline WElliott

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Re: Arnie Dowd - paneled butt plate
« Reply #7 on: November 12, 2018, 07:08:51 AM »
I think that Arnie and I have concluded that subsequent  evidence points to one gunsmith, Wiley G.  Higgins of Georgia,  as constituting the entire “Paneled Buttplate School of Southern Kentuckies”
Wayne Elliott

Offline Hungry Horse

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Re: Arnie Dowd - paneled butt plate
« Reply #8 on: November 12, 2018, 05:40:21 PM »
Wayne, you may very well be right on this subject. Some of the  Higgins, and Kennedy, families moved to Alabama after the Civil War. Both families were large, with several highly trained craftsmen, and gunsmiths on both sides. Anyone making Southern longrifles, with paneled buttplates, more than likely was apprenticed to one of these families. The stylistically unusual paneled buttplates no doubt got used periodically by these gunsmiths, on their higher end commissions, and almost without a doubt can be traced to Wiley Higgins.
 Interestingly enough relative of both these families kept moving west, over time, until they wound up being neighbors in Lake County California.

  Hungry Horse

Offline WElliott

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Re: Arnie Dowd - paneled butt plate
« Reply #9 on: November 15, 2018, 06:35:02 AM »
I would like to see an example of a panelled buttplate on a rifle made by someone in the Higgins family other than Wiley. Are there any examples from Higgins family members who moved to Alabama? Arkansas?  Texas?
Wayne Elliott

Offline WElliott

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Re: Arnie Dowd - paneled butt plate
« Reply #10 on: November 15, 2018, 06:38:04 AM »
How about an example from someone not a Higgins?  I’ve been looking for such examples. Perhaps someone has an example to point to. ?
Wayne Elliott

realtorone

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Re: Arnie Dowd - paneled butt plate
« Reply #11 on: November 16, 2018, 02:53:38 AM »
Wayne  Look in Shelby Gallien's Book on Kentucky Gunmakers referenced above. It appears that A.S. Jones worked in Kentucky prior to civil war and Alabama afterward. The barrel maker also came south and was in Monroe La in 1870.
George Hebling

Offline WElliott

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Re: Arnie Dowd - paneled butt plate
« Reply #12 on: November 16, 2018, 06:23:09 AM »
George, the Jones rifle does not have what Arnie and I refer to as a paneled buttplate. By paneled we mean panels on the rear surface of the buttplate itself, not decorative panels on the stock itself on either side of the buttplate.  I will post an illustrative picture later.
« Last Edit: November 16, 2018, 02:42:20 PM by WElliott »
Wayne Elliott

Offline WElliott

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Re: Arnie Dowd - paneled butt plate
« Reply #13 on: November 16, 2018, 06:30:43 AM »



Panaled buttpate of rifle signed Wiley G. Higgins.  A horizontal line with three vertical panels below.
Wayne Elliott

realtorone

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Re: Arnie Dowd - paneled butt plate
« Reply #14 on: November 17, 2018, 01:12:56 AM »
I see the difference. Before Shelby's brother took the pictures of the Jones rifle he talked about Higgins paneled rifles and their work in Georgia. I took it to be a Reference to the panels like those on the Jones rifle. Sorry to have misled you , just trying to help.
George .

Offline WElliott

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Re: Arnie Dowd - paneled butt plate
« Reply #15 on: November 18, 2018, 06:21:17 AM »
Completely understand, George. There is nothing like pictures where words fail. I’m glad you raised the question. 
Wayne Elliott

ClaudeH

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Re: Arnie Dowd - paneled butt plate
« Reply #16 on: November 20, 2018, 09:53:49 AM »
Thanks, Wayne!  I didn't know the term when I saw this thread and even reading Arnie Dowd's paper left me scratching my head.

Every rifle he shows has those big inlays adjacent to the buttplate on both sides except one (#5 I think).  That exception was the only thing keeping me from reaching a firm but erroneous conclusion as to what he was talking about.

Your photo was worth a thousand words!
« Last Edit: November 20, 2018, 09:55:18 AM by In Over My Head »