What you have is an absolute classic Johnson City School rifle. There are architectural and artistic ingredients in it that you won’t likely see in most other contemporary rifles. All (or most) can be traced back to Hacker Martin (1895-1970) and then with more influence from Lester Smith (no relation to Louis) (1920-1970). Lester Smith’s inlay and engraving work greatly influenced Louis Smith as well as LeRoy Fleenor (1929-2016), Don Davidson (1943-2017) and Dale Johnson (still kicking).
While all of these makers stayed pretty much true to the Johnson City style they were quite capable and did recreate accurate copies of original work. The Johnson City School pieces are a contemporary style all their own and don’t mimic much of what you’re going to find in publications featuring antique arms, which in my mind is a good thing!
Things to look for would be the abrupt and somewhat clumsy terminus of the forestock at the junction of the forend cap and curious little whoop-te-doo at the rear of the lock and side panels. The real tell tail signs are in the abundance of inlays. Inlays everywhere. They seemed to take pride in busy wear plates, toe plates, and comb overlays. The other obvious to me is the engraving. Those boys loved to engrave and were good at it given the time and perhaps lack of reference material that they had to work with. Louis is said to have done most of Fleenors engraving. Wriggle engraving is evident on almost all Johnson City guns.
These pieces are bringing pretty good money in the big gun auctions which is testament to their appeal today. If you would need an estimate of value I would be happy to give you an honest opinion at no charge. Just send me a personal message.
Congratulations!!
Wayne
