ALR Museum Gunsmith: E. Patterson , probably New York

[Hurricane ( of Virginia)]

We proudly present another longrifle attributed to New York. The maker, E. Patterson, is known but his place of production is not established by current research, thus New York is an "attribution" based on the guns style and features.

Here is the URL:

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=11378.0

Your comments are requested as a "reply" here.

The Museum Committee

[gibster]

Everyone has their own tastes in rifles.  The rifle is not mine and I have never seen it in person, only these pictures.  Whoever the owner of this piece is, they are proud enough of it to share it with the rest of us, and I for one am glad that they did. Whether a rifle is early or late, it should stand on it's own merit and recognized for what it is/was.  Not everyone can own a Beck or Armstrong or, take your pick of makers.  For those that can, great.  But for the rest of us, we buy what we can afford and we enjoy them, at least I do.  You may not appreciate a late rifle, but there are many who do.

[Majorjoel]

I must concur with the Gibster here. When it comes to tastes in longrifles, just like opinions, everybody has their own. Being from the northern midwest, original mid 19th century era muzzle loading rifles are as scarce as hens teeth. I am not the owner of this piece but happen to find a lot of eye pleasing elements about it. It has a lot more artistic merit than most rifles sharing the same types of configuration. I have not had the opportunity to see this rifle other than the photographs from the museum but from them find the metal parts to appear inletted into the wood. This rifle in my opinion is a very fine example of the era it represents and is most deserving a place in the museum. I thank the owner for sharing it with us....Joel

[woodsrunner]

I strongly concur with gibster on this. I'm not a "Heavy Weight" in collecting originals of any time period or geographic area by any means, but this piece most definately has it's place in the order of things and I'm glad to have the opportunity to look at the photos!

I find the wear plate interesting. I see the ancient "vesica piscis" replicated 5 times, and there may be more in areas not visable in this photo. You have to wonder if this was by design or simply by chance!

The leaf design side plate appeals to the woodsman in me....I like it!

[Tanselman]

I have seen this rifle. Its German silver inlays are all inlaid into the wood. Perhaps the perception of a surface inlay comes from the dog inlay in the cheekpiece. The butt is hard, heavily figured walnut that has shrunk slightly, pushing the dog inlay partially out of its mortise. However, it was originally inlet into the cheekpiece, just as the other inlays were inlaid into the stock wood. It is a late rifle, rather small in size, but for the era in which it was made it has some decent decoration. It hasn't been significantly damaged or altered, so it offers a representative example of a late New York (?) rifle to the library.    Shelby Gallien