Worcester-Shrewsbury School flintlock rifle.
Unfortunately, as with many of these rifles, it is not marked on the barrel or lock with a makers name, nor does it have any other markings for that matter.
The rifle is 56 inches long and weighs 8lbs 6oz. and has a hooked breech barrel. The barrel itself is 41-1/8 inches long and has eight groove rifling with squared corner lands and grooves. The bore is .54 cal, pretty typical for these New England rifles. As is the style of brass furniture.
The domed style wrist escutcheon is silver as are the barrel key escutcheons, and the eight pointed star inlet into the cheek rest. The barrel keys are brass.
The rifle stock has silver wire designs around the breech tang, wrist escutcheon, to the front of the comb of the stock, in front of the bottom butt plate extension, at the end of the rear ramrod pipe, and the lower edge of the cheek rest. There has been some repair work to some areas of the silver wire.
Both lock screw escutcheons, the patch box, buttplate plate bottom extension, and the rear ramrod pipe have engraving common the rifles and fowlers by John Mason, Silas Allen Jr. and other gunsmiths of Worcester County. Tom Grinslade feels that some of these gunsmiths purchased engraved components from a single source. See pages 85, 86,89, and 91 of Grinslade's
Flintlock Fowlers.
Inlet into the wrist is a plate, having a tapped hole for a lollipop sight. I am fairly positive that this was done after the original assembly of the rifle. The lollipop sight is not with the rifle.
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