I have seen a couple of these rifles, with this patchbox. The guns have a number of details associated with the Lexington School of gunmaking in Kentucky, including the long, slender stock architecture, tight side facings around the lock, double molding lines, and at times the small arc that terminates the molding lines...such as on the lower butt molding just above the rear trigger. The patchbox finial is very much like the pre-War of 1812 Lexington finials with the large "S" in the finial's tip. This particular rifle has the slender silver oval on the wrist with a name engraved on it. The inlay with engraved name is very similar in shape and size to the slender silver ovals soldered or riveted onto the lids of better Lexington rifles during the flint era with the owners' names engraved on them. However, I do not believe these rifles are made in Kentucky. I believe they are most likely from the western part of North Carolina, where much of the influence seen in Lexington School guns in Kentucky originated from. Those influences were carried to Kentucky by the Bryan family of Rowan County and other NC gunmakers from nearby counties who migrated to Kentucky in the late 1700s and early 1800s. But some of those gunmakers also remained in North Carolina.
It would be helpful if Bill Wilde would post a picture of the back side of his fine dark-finished rifle, where perhaps more of the Carolina influences can be seen. These two interesting rifles have guards that differ significantly from Lexington guards, and the patchboxes are made from sheet brass, not cast brass, with the side leaves totally foreign to KY gunmaking. Further, the carving on the darker rifle of Bill's is totally foreign to KY gunmaking. I have never seen a sheet brass patchbox on a Lexington style rifle from KY...with one exception...an 1840s percussion rifle of moderate quality with a Lexington shaped box of moderate to poor construction...yet it still had the typical Lexington shaped side leaves with the two emerging "crowns" on each side. One of the reasons for the exceptional consistency of Lexington School boxes and guards, even as they evolved slightly over the years, was the fact that Lexington had significant brass foundries for most of its early life. I believe most of the local gunmakers had their brass hardware cast at the local brass works...which advertised brass gun mountings in the "Kentucky Gazette" paper from time to time. I also believe there was basically one style of rough cast guard and patchbox made, the "Lexington style," and the slight variations we see were most often the individual final shaping by local gunsmiths...particularly after the War of 1812 when the slightly smaller Lexington box was in vogue and, with just slight variations, all looked very much the same.
These two fine rifles demonstrate a number of Kentucky-like details, but also differ in several critical ways that suggest they were not made in Kentucky, but most likely back in western North Carolina. The uniformity of Lexington School rifles, even with the slight variations seen, is a striking characteristic of central KY gunmaking. In my opinion, these two rifles vary too widely, and in ways not in keeping with the Lexington School consistency, which strongly implies they were made outside the state, but by gunsmiths who were influenced by some of the same earlier gunsmiths who influenced the Lexington rifle. Of course, it is also possible some of the same western North Carolina gunsmiths migrated to places other than central Kentucky...such as northern Tennessee where we see a somewhat related patchbox in Sumner County...and perhaps a few early NC gunsmiths went more southward and ended up in South Carolina. Shelby Gallien
