Bill - I thought I recognized that guard!
This rifle is an excellent example of a regional gunmaker's style preference that you see on the occasional East Tennessee rifles that mounted in brass, silver, or German silver, rather than iron. Unlike some of the gunmakers in areas farther east, they did not typically cast brass/silver/german silver hardware in those instances when a customer wanted something a little shinier than iron. If you look at the details of the guard you will see how it was formed from mutliple pieces and riveted and joined at the back of the bow, in the same way they would typically approach iron hardware. If you look at some of the silver mounted Bull or Bean pistols, or that set of brass Bean style hardware from the Museum of Florida History that Jim Levy posted photos of on here a few years ago , you will note they are also formed and joined (where applicable) rather than cast.
Much more efficient (think time and materials and thus also cost) than setting up to do castings if you are only going to do one or a few sets of such hardware. Also suggests that possibly that once early gunmakers moved into East Tennessee casting brass hardware was generally abandoned over time, or perhaps that the East Tennessee rifle sprang from a totally different mindset from traditional gunmaking - i.e. more of a blacksmithing approach.
Note also that this does not hold true for all Appalachian rifles - Dennis can correct me if I am wrong but I beilieve the Gillespies seem to have cast their brass guards and buttplates all along and used both cast brass or forged iron hardware in abundance on their rifles. I suspect scale of production (and local customer preferences fro that production) may have something to do with it as well. There is a lot of wasted material on a casting tree - you can throw it back in the pot but if you don't have demand from another brass or silver rifle or two in the near future, it's just not efficient use of materials. On the other hand, if you are running lots of guards and buttplattes for a year or two worth of brass mounted rifles, maybe even for multiple gunsmiths in your family or area, casting becomes a better way to go.
Guy
