Patch box hinge

[Hungry Horse]

 I own a Lehigh smoothrifle built around 1815 that has a puzzling patch box lid hinge. The lid is gone, but the rest of the box is there. It includes one of the ends of the original hinge. It’s bullet shaped, and has the remnant of the axle that the lid pivoted on solidly attached to it. There are no knuckles in the center, so I suspect the lid had a rolled tube at the hinge attachment point. Have any of you seen a similar hinge?

  Hungry Horse

[J. Talbert]

Can you post a picture?

[Eric Kettenburg]

I'd like a picture too because I can't quite envision what you're describing.  It sounds like a simple three-knuckle hinge - two ends and a wide center knuckle on the lid which was somewhat common on various Northampton Co. work and into eastern Berks.

[Hungry Horse]

Eric, you describe it much better than I. What you described is exactly the type of patchbox hinge that this gun has. The gun was brought to California sometime before the gold rush. It had already been converted to percussion, quite likely by the original builder, since the workmanship on the conversion is impeccable. The original owners found it almost worthless in the west I suspect since it only .45 caliber, and smoothbored, to boot. In any event the guns primary damage appears to be from being kicked around in closets and attics for a couple of hundred years. Its major damage is to the forearm, and stems from the underlugs being very thin folded brass, in very shallow dovetails, which separated when the forearm shrank with time.

  Hungry Horse