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Classified Forums => Recent books => Topic started by: mbriggs on March 26, 2021, 09:04:28 PM

Title: Early Mecklenburg N.C. gunsmiths And Other Books By Michael Briggs
Post by: mbriggs on March 26, 2021, 09:04:28 PM
The photos have all been published and copyrighted in my book "The  Longrifle Makers of the Mecklenburg School" which is still available.  The book is $40, plus $4 shipping. Just mail a check to Michael Briggs 103 Battle Road Greensboro, N.C. 27410 and I will be glad to mail you a copy.


(https://i.ibb.co/BsQ3jcX/The-Longrifle-Makers-of-the-Mecklenburg-School-Front-cover-corrected.jpg) (https://ibb.co/MNtSpZY)


Thanks,

Michael
Title: Re: Re: My greatest find - Zenas Alexander, early Mecklenburg N.C. gunsmith
Post by: mbriggs on March 27, 2021, 07:53:58 PM
 Mecklenburg is the rarest of the nine longrifle schools in North  Carolina  with only 22  rifles and one pistol known to survive.  I have been very bullish on collecting them having owned 11 of the rifles and the pistol. I have sold five of the rifles over the last two years.

I will try to attach the list of books and how to order them.



(https://i.ibb.co/3RZJjw3/C-Michael-Briggs-About-the-Author-2020-with-Davidson-1.jpg) (https://ibb.co/J3JhGN1)

generate geojson (https://geojsonlint.com/)




(https://i.ibb.co/pXmFg9M/North-Carolina-Schools-of-Longrifles-Map.jpg) (https://ibb.co/ThC3ZF7)
Title: Re: Re: My greatest find - Zenas Alexander, early Mecklenburg N.C. gunsmith
Post by: mr. no gold on March 28, 2021, 02:31:01 AM
Well, I for one just recently purchased Michael's set of books describing the NC schools and their guns. They really are wonderful giving color photos of dozens of the best known NC guns and a lot of biography on the makers including their shops, locations and other items of information that are almost never seen elsewhere. You literally can't put these books down once you begin reading them. There is a book on horns as well describing what an NC horn is and what to look for if you are hunting them. Come to find out that I already had several nice NC horns that I had no idea about. To me they were just neat horns but somewhat different than the northern kind. So if you want to learn some new things and be greatly entertained at the same time, you need to get yourself a set of these.
Dick
Title: Re: Book On Early Mecklenburg N.C. gunsmiths And Other Books By Michael Briggs
Post by: Tim Crosby on March 28, 2021, 07:57:18 PM
 A review of Michael Briggs book "Longrifle Makers of the Salem School"
I think you will be interested in this book. Click on the link below to read the review.

 By Dennis Glazener

http://americanlongrifles.org/PDF/briggs_book.pdf
Title: Re: Book On Early Mecklenburg N.C. gunsmiths And Other Books By Michael Briggs
Post by: Tim Crosby on March 28, 2021, 08:00:41 PM
 
The Longrifle Makers of the Mecklenburg School by C. Michael Briggs

Review by T. D. Glazener November 29, 2016

The Longrifle Makers of the Mecklenburg School documents the history of longrifle gunsmiths in Mecklenburg County, NC from1760 through 1835. This book is 8.5” x 11” and is softbound. The book contains 201 pages and all photos are in full color.

The W. B. (William Black) rifle that graces the front and rear covers of this book is probably the best looking NC made rifle that I have seen. It is also shown on the cover of John Bivins book “Longrifles of North Carolina”. At the time Bivins attributed it as being a Rowan County school rifle. Bivins mentions a Mecklenburg County school but goes on to state “so few eighteenth-century Mecklenburg rifles exist today that we cannot draw ample conclusions about the scope of the school”. Later Bivins states “Mecklenburg cannot properly be termed a school until more rifles from the section are found”. Bivins wrote these words back in 1968 and at the time it reflected the extent of what was known about early gunsmiths in Mecklenburg County NC.
Since John Bivins wrote his 1968 book, many new Mecklenburg longrifles and documents have been discovered. Bill Ivey gave a lecture to the Kentucky Rifle Association in the 1980’s which firmly established the Mecklenburg School as a distinctly different style of gunmaking than the surrounding counties.

Mecklenburg School rifles are rare and so different from other NC rifles that one can easily incorrectly identify the rifle as being made outside NC.  This is understandable since most of the surviving Mecklenburg Longrifles have scroll finials reminiscent of south central PA. Some of the longrifles were built with re-cycled barrels signed by well-known PA rifle makers causing miss-identification as PA made rifles.

In Chapter 1 Michael gives a history of the Mecklenburg School. Chapter 3 gives a detailed description of the architectural features of these fine NC rifles. Chapter 4 lists the names and information about 21 known Mecklenburg School gunsmiths. In chapter 5 there is a listing of the 10 known makers of the 19 long rifles and one pistol that are presently known to have been made in the style of the Mecklenburg School. Chapter 6 contains 71 pages of professionally made full-color photos of known Mecklenburg School long rifles and the one known pistol. Most of the pages contain 3 photos.

Chapters 7 through 10 contain observations of the author along with books, magazine articles, listings of historical source documents. Appendixes 1 through 13 contain Misc. Mecklenburg School gunsmith information collected over the years by the author.

Appendix 14 was especially interesting in that it contains 9 detailed color photos of an early (1770-1775) long rifle that belonged to John McKnitt Alexander that moved to Mecklenburg County NC in 1764. The barrel of this rifle is signed by Lancaster PA gunsmith John Graeff. Michael tells the story about how this rifle was identified as likely to have been made by one of the early Mecklenburg County gunsmiths using a recycled Graeff barrel.

This is a book that any serious student of NC and other Southern Longrifles will want to add to their library. It is well written and documented
Title: Re: Book On Early Mecklenburg N.C. gunsmiths And Other Books By Michael Briggs
Post by: Tim Crosby on March 28, 2021, 08:04:41 PM
  The Longrifle Makers of Guilford County NC By C. Michael Briggs

Review by T. D. Glazener September 16, 2016

 The Longrifle Makers of Guilford County NC is much more than the typical Longrifle book listing makers along with photos of their work. Michael has been a Guilford County historian and NC longrifle collector for most of his adult life. In this book he gives the reader a detailed history of the makers along with color photographs of their work. This book has 215 pages filled with information that you normally would not see in most Longrifle books.

Collectors today recognize nine different regional schools or styles of gunmaking in early NC. Eight of these schools were located in the Piedmont area of NC. Guildford County gunmakers normally fall into one of these two schools. The first was the “Early Deep River” school which started circa 1760 and continued until circa 1810. The second school, the Jamestown school, evolved from the Early Deep River School starting around 1810. Michael has identified 85+ makers that worked in the Jamestown style.

There is an alphabetical listing of known Guildford County Gunmakers along with a good Bio for each of them. Most of the Bio’s contain far more that the cryptic born, died, location etc. that is the norm in many longrifle books.

There are 81 pages of good quality color photos of Guilford County rifles. Then we are given another 4 pages of Jamestown Rifles made outside Guilford County. Most pages contain three views of the featured rifle.

Guilford County gunsmith’s made a few pistols. Michael included 7 pages of color photos of some of these Guilford County made pistols.

This book also contains many articles, early newspaper stories and gunmaker family genealogy reports. Michael includes modern photos of gunshop locations and many of the grave sites of the Guilford County gunmakers.

This is not your normal longrifle book, Michael spent over 36+ years studying the Longrifle culture in Guilford County NC and graciously shares it with the reader. In my opinion it is well worth the $40.00 price.