Original "Germanic" style locks

[G-Man]

This may have been covered somewhere in the past, but if not...

There has been a lot of discussion about the who, what, when and where of English export lock styles in recent years and more coming to light all the time.  However, I have never really seen similar discussion of lock styles that most of the books and lock producers simply refer to as "Germanic" and it dawned on me I know very little about these types of locks.  So here are some questions:

1) While there are English locks pretty well documented as "trade" or "export" styles, what about the "Germanic" style locks?  I assume most were imported, or  did a significant number of American gunsmiths in places like Pennsylvania and the Shenandoah Valley produce their own "Germanic" style locks?

2) I can see why the earliest German-American gunsmiths used continental style locks - especially if they trained in Europe before coming over here.  But by the fourth quarter of the 18th century most of the American gunmakers with German heritage were second or third generation Americans - pretty far removed from the old country - so why the continued apparent preference for Germanic style locks on so many Pennsylvania guns, many Shenandoah Valley guns, etc. in the 1780s and 90s?  Was it the lack of access to English products during the Revolution?   Or was perhaps a cultural thing?  Or patriotism/ animosity toward the British?  Or was it quality/ reputation concern?
 
3)  Since "Germany" as we know it didn't exist in the 18th century, where exactly on the continent were most of these style locks being made, and traded from, and how/ whey were they getting into British colonies in the first place in such great numbers in an era when the British tried to dominate and control trade in so many areas (i.e both before and during the Revolution)?  Was there so much demand that the English gunmakers could not keep up?  Were American importers getting them direct from sources within the area that is now Germany before the Revolution and this continued during and after the war?  Or were there British firms acting as middlemen in the trade of continental products? How (where-what ports) were most of these Germanic style locks getting into the colonies?

I know that's a lot of questions, but thoughts on any of them by some of you guys knowledgeable on lock styles and imports would be appreciated.

Guy

[keweenaw]

Guy,

So many questions so few answers.  I think part of the reason less work has been done on the germanic locks than the English ones is that many english lock styles were used on both domestically produced rifles as well as exported as locks so that dating is much easier.  Also a moderate number of english locks are signed by the maker allowing business names and dates to be compared.  Imported germanic locks are rarely signed. 

I think your assumption regarding the gunmakers of the last quarter of the 18th century to be second or third generation Americans is incorrect.  There was massive immigration from the Palantine region to Pennsylvania through the mid part of the 18th century - my own gunmaker ancestors came in 1758.  Many of the makers that we know were either immigrants or first generation Americans.  Many regions in eastern Pennsylvania didn't establish English speaking schools until the 1830's.

Tom

[G-Man]

Thanks Tom -

I see your point - I guess quite a few of the Revolutionary era gunmakers would have still been first generation immigrants. 

I would assume most of the imported Germanic locks would have come in through Philadelphia, but the whole idea of how, why, where from and by whom -  interesting to ponder. 

Guy

[Majorjoel]

As you put it Guy, Germany was not a soverien nation under one government during most of the 18th century. It was a large group of "Kingdoms" or principalities that were in essence under their own systems of rulers. What is very interesting were the family connections and bloodlines of many of these Germanic principalites to good ole England. The English royal blood was quite mixed with several of these German states. It was the main reason that the Hessian soldiers were bought for use during the Revolution by king George III. I can assume that similar connections with trade goods such as German made locks and gun parts would have been readily bought and sold by the English and brought to the colonies.

[Tanselman]

I think part of the answer lies in the cultural make-up of the first 13 colonies. Each was settled by immigrants from a specific area of Europe, and each retained strong ties to its cultural homeland back over the seas. There was no "United States" before the Revolutionary War. Rather, there were independent colonies, each with a somewhat different heritage based on its early settlers. Each preferred its own styles, its own cultural values and to some extent governing forms, etc. And they kept in relatively close contact with their "home" country in Europe. Until the rumblings of the Revolutionary War pulled them together in common cause, the individual colonies were not closely associated with each other, as they had to be to survive the war. New York preferred Dutch products, Pennsylvania preferred Germanic products, Virginia preferred British products, etc.

Strongly Germanic areas used Germanic locks, while areas settled by British immigrants preferred British style locks. As we've all read, for several generations labor was scarce in America compared to Europe where it was much more plentiful, so quality locks could be made in Europe and exported to America for substantially less than if they were made over here. Of course, if an early Amerian gunsmith didn't have an imported lock available, he could generally make one, but it cost the new owner more.

Germanic locks were imported into the Amerian colonies, and used primarily where German immigrants had settled. Kauffman in his "The Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rifle" discussed early locks used in Pennsylvania, including records of Germanic locks being imported by major hardware dealers. Kauffman also provides data on the growing number of lock makers in the United States by the turn of the century, i.e. 1800, and later. So it would seem that up to about 1800 there were some cultural demands for retaining the use of certain type locks that early settlers were "comfortable" with, but after about 1800 (not an exact time, but around that time) as locks began to develop oval tails and goose neck cocks, it appears that the British influences began to win out in a wider area, beyond just the initial British settled areas. Shelby Gallien   

[PGosnell]

Here's something to ponder.  Some of the foundational guilds that trained our early Pennsylvania gunmakers are still in operation today.

Suhl for example is still a center of sporting arms manufacture in Germany.

[mr. no gold]

There is a French component to this discussion, as well. French locks look much like what we call Germanic in that they employed a faceted pan (the Germanic lock could probably more correctly be termed as 'Continental' as opposed to the English locks). Is is not certain that all of the locks we call 'Germanic' were made in the German provinces. Gunmaking necessarily flourished throughout Europe and common locks could have been imported from many places. Odd, that we almost never see fancy, engraved or chased locks on Kentucky/American made guns. We know that many Euro guns were quite fancy and have such locks, etc; especially among the French.
There are classes of NE guns and other early pieces that have locks identified as French (including some that can be called early Kentucky Rifles). When the War ended, Fench trade in the New World seemed to dry up and the French Revolution severely curtailed industry in that unfortunate country. Anyone have any ideas?
Dick

[Stophel]

German lockmakers did't follow specific patterns, nor did they follow the whims of fashion as much as the English, so dating German locks is more difficult.  The Germans seem to have made up the flat faced locks for export, and kept the nicer round faced locks for themselves.   

[R. Hare]

I wonder too, that with the Dutch and English having the main trade monopoly, that this would have affected the product being imported?

What I mean is, that German locks, though imported, might have been on a much  smaller scale than English locks.

Could this have affected the type of lock produced by the German immigrant gunsmith?
(Flat lock-plate, with separate pan......easier to make than an all-in -one??

Just thinking out loud,.....