East Tennessee Rifle

[jmaurer]

Hello!
I recently acquired this rifle, and would like to share a few photgraphs. The barrel is unmarked, appears to have never been shortened, is approximately .40, 15/16-inch from flat to flat, and is about 44 1/2 inches in length.

Can anyone suggest a maker or area of origin more specific than east Tennessee?

Thanks!

[Curt J]

Good to see you here Joe! Very nice rifle, has Jerry seen it yet?

[Ken G]

What an great gun.  Many, many thanks for posting the pictures.  I"m still pouring over the details but wanted to say thanks.  The double rivet hole in the buttplate is pretty interesting.
Ken

[tom patton]

Typical late upper East Tennessee /Western  North Carolina{Flag Pond area} rifle. I don't think I ever saw a front sight mounted this way with the blade in backward.That may help ID  this gun along with that short cheek piece.Another point is that the gun seems to lack the slim graceful lines of the better makers such as Harris,the Grosses,Lawing and to some degree the Beans.
Tom Patton

[jmaurer]

Thanks for the responses, folks. If it's not evident in the images, the lock (and lock screw escutcheon) are replacements; is it possible that this rifle started life as a flintlock?

Tom, I think the front sight blade was originally longer. The photographs don't really indicate it, but in the right light, the oxidation on the barrel where the front sight could have extended is just a tad different. Perhaps the sight was broken off a good while before the rifle was taken out of use.

I also forgot to post an image of the muzzle, which appears to have been decorated with the same circular punch used to stake the front sight base:

[G-Man]

The architecture brings to mind some of the work attributed to the Rice gunsmiths shown in John Rice Irwin's book.  Although the cheekpiece looks a bit different.

Guy

[Levy]

I really like the rifle, but can't really help you with where it was made.  I did recently receive a newly made triggerguard from Mark Tornichio that looks virtually identical to yours.  I'm not knowledgable enough to know whose style Mark was getting his inspiration from.

James Levy

[jmaurer]

James:

Thanks for the comments. If you have any hints from Mr. Tornichio, please let us know.

I dug out my two volumes of J. Noble's work (the only two I have, Volumes I and II) this weekend past, and nothing is ringing a bell. I know I've seen this triggerguard elsewhere, but I just can't place it. I also contacted the seller, who had purchased the rifle out of an estate, but so far it seems to be a dead end. I'll be sure to share any additional info if I find it.

[WElliott]

Hey, Joe, good to see you on here.  Are you sure it isn't a southern Illinois piece?     
Wayne

[tom patton]

I realize that to some this may seem like heresy but after looking at upper East Tennessee rifles for many years I have wondered as to the possibility that some of those upper East Tennessee and possibly Middle East Tennessee gunsmiths were buying their iron mounts from local blacksmiths for installation on their guns.The scarcity of signed specimens complicates the matter.For instance I do not believe that there is such a thing as a "Bean trigger guard" I once had an unsigned original percussion rifle with virtually all the so called Bean features except the double pin thimbles but I never thought it was a Bean rifle.For one thing its architecture was too good for a Bean rifle.It may have been made by Jason Harris of Unicoi County.I once had a man tell me that he had an unsigned Bean rifle.I asked him which Bean DIDN'T  sign the gun. I never heard from again.I turned down several efforts from one well known dealer for that gun but would never sell it to him because I knew that the next time I saw the gun, it would have a flint lock,patch box, and a silver plate on the barrel with the name of one of the Beans probably James or Baxter.The late Robin Hale and I  on three different occasions saw a rifle which looked like an upper East Tennessee or Southwest Virginia gun. I don't remember the chronology but it was 1. signed  by one of the Beans, 2. signed by another Bean, and 3.unsigned either with a blank silver barrel inlay or a barrel with nothing on it.I could identify the rifle today  but would prefer not to since it may have probably changed hands several times.Some one has said that there are more Bean rifles than the Beans actually made and that may  be true.I also had an original percussion rifle signed B. Bean {Baxter} for somebody. I have long felt that there may have been two Baxter Beans {father and son?}Baxter {the elder?} was killed in Nashville in the early 1840's and I don't know if he was still working then. The gun was later than any original Baxter Bean gun that I have ever seen-Just some random thoughts.
Tom Patton

[G-Man]

Tom - I think you are correct in that Baxter (senior), son of Russell and b: 1799, d: 1850s had a son named Baxter - I can't remember if he is recorded as a gunsmith - I think he might be one of the "probable" Bean gunsmiths listed in Jerry's book.  Then there was a James Baxter Bean who was a famous dental surgeoun during the Civil War, if I recall correctly.  They were a large prolific family - and they tended to incorporate intermarried family surnames into the naming of their children, i.e. Russell, Baxter, etc.  So it gets really confusing very quickly when you start trying to figure who was who amongst the Baxter Beans,  James Beans, or James Baxter Beans, or....(you get the idea) .

You do see a lot of very similar hardware turning up among different makers.  The whole idea of some of the hardware being made up, perhaps at some of the bloomery/forge sites, and sold by iron mongers and used by a number of different local makers, would not surprise me.  Just my opinion but I don't think it is just coincidence that the southern Appalachians had lots of small local iron furnaces and what seem to be the locations and timeframe for the greatest production of iron mounted guns coincides with the boom in the local iron furnaces. These really began to pop up in great numbers throughout the region, through southwestern Virginia, Tennessee, the western Carolinas, Georgia, and Kentucky  in the 1790s, with peak production in the mid-1800s.  However, I also realize this raises the question of why this same popularity of iron mounts did not take off in Pennsylania, or other places they were making iron much earlier....

Anyway, back to the gun - I've seen this particular toeplate before on other mountain rifles.  And it looks to be riveted (or was riveted at one time), at its tail end, through to the buttplate, if I am seeing correctly.  The placement of the lower buttplate screw in the middle of the plate is unusual - but it looks like maybe it was lower originally and that hole was filled and the screw was moved up - perhaps when the toe was damaged and the rivet lost (?)

Triggers are sort of unusual - almost "Hawken" looking to me - spaced much more close together than most Tennessee triggers.

Guy

[tom patton]

Guy, I believe the elder Baxter Bean died sometime in the early 1840's.He is listed as being buried in the old Nashville City Cemetery but I never tried to find his grave marker.I'm not sure as to the period within which he worked.If any of you have a copy of the paper Robin gave to the American Society of Arms Collectors back in the 1970's, a picture of the B.Bean rifle I owned is included.There exists a great deal of confusion about Bean rifles and which of them made rifles. They seem to have signed their guns with a first initial and the name Bean often followed by the word "for" and the name of the customer. Another  example is those guns signed " R.Bean" and sometimes wistfully attributed to Russell Bean.It is probably more likely that  these guns were made by Robert Bean, a brother to Baxter the elder and Charles the elder.Charles the elder by the way is the father of Charles the younger ofteen referred to as "Charley Bean"Another member of this family was George Bean {uncle to Baxter the elder} who was working in East Tennessee in  the 1790's as evidenced by a 1792 advertisement in a Knoxville,Tennessee newspaper wherein he stated that he produced guns and silver.To my knowlege none of his products are known.
  The Bean family of upper East Tennessee dating from Ca. 1769} is a most interesting and colorful group.I hope this helps
Tom Patton

[G-Man]

Thanks Tom.  The connections between the Beans and the Bulls are pretty interesting too.  I don't mean to pull this too far off the topic of the rifle at hand, but is one of the "R Bean" rifles you referred to the same one that Jerry Noble describes as being by Russell Bean and dated in the 1790s?  There is no picture of it in the book, but he describes it as having a bannana patchpox.  Is it the same one that some people feel was possibly an 1800s restock of an earlier barrel with slightly later hardware?  I would love to see that rifle, regardless of whether it was restocked or not.

It would be really great if someday we turn up a true mountain style Tennessee rifle, with all the trimmings, that could be definitively dated to pre-1800.  Jerry Noble had a great mountain rifle, probably North Carolina in origin, in his booth at Friendship this past September that he feels is pretty close.  Regardless, I would love to see the products that Tennessee gunsmiths were turning out in the period between first settlement (late 1760s) and 1800 - we know they were there and working. I always envision pieces looking similar to the Bogle rifle, or maybe some of the stepped wrist type guns shown in Wallace's articles, at least by the 1790s.  There are also a few real early looking John Bull pieces with simple 2-piece or captured lid boxes that look to be right around 1800-1810 and look to pre-date his later style with the high angular comb, and have different hardware.  But who knows for sure?

It's also interesting to know that John Bull is believed to have learned gunsmithing, at least got his start, in Maryland before moving to Tennessee with his family.  His family bought their land from the Beans and he ended up marrying a Bean.  But even on some (not all) of what look to be his earliest pieces, you see iron mounts and various styles of guards that look to be close to what we think of as "Tennessee" style guards - surely he was not bringing these influences with him from Maryland.  So one wonders, when he got to Tennesse (not sure of the exact date but it was by 1800) did he become influenced by a regional style that was already well established by 1800?

Fun to ponder,


Guy