Side hinge

[Kermit]

How early and over what area of PA were side-hinged patchboxes used? 

[smshea]

Read  Eric Kettenburgs article on his web site about the George Leyendecher Box, A lot of good info there.  Certainly as early as the 1770's and usually they are found in the  eastern part of the state, The Christians spring guns and the Bucks co. guns is where you find most of them.

[rich pierce]

+1.  RCA #42, the Leyendecker box and the Deschler rifle could all be within 5 years of each other.  The Leyendeker box is dated 1771 IIRC and may or may not be the latest of the 3.  Of course although in "evolution", the found examples are not necessarily the very first ones ever made.  Seems the Christians Spring cast side openers (entirely different construction) co-evolved or were slightly later than RCA #42 by many estimates.

Disclaimer:No real data was harmed in my regurgitation of research done by others, to whom I owe a debt of gratitude.

[Kermit]

Wow. Thanks, I think. That's more than a five-minute read. Feels like grad school again. For the curious, here 'tis:

http://web.mac.com/kettenburgs/Site_2/Article_Index.html