This is a difficult gun to make meaningful comments on. It has some less-than-adequate restoration, and when you see that, you begin to question the rest of the gun. The front side facing has been re-shaped at the nose. It probably originally had a flat nosed shotgun style lock, as indicated by the rear side facing, but when the current lock was installed, the front side facing's nose was altered to accept the new round-nosed lock. The patchbox has National Road style side leaves coupled with a probable Tryon finial out of Philadelphia...not a good match and possibly indicating a later addition...note there is almost no darker oxidation in the wood along the edges of the patchbox, which is normally seen on original boxes...unless the gun was heavily cleaned and refinished at one time. The finial's screw heads also appear to be brass; if so, then a later applied box.
The most elaborate detail, the heavy "silver" inlay work, is another puzzle. At the muzzle, you can see that a repair splice runs under the inlay work at the outer key location, possibly indicating inlays were added after the restoration was done. However, the inlay work could possibly be original, but if so, was heavily sanded or cleaned, removing the dark oxide again that is expected from silver that gets smeared into the stock wood abutting the inlay edges. So, hard to say if inlays are original. Perhaps added later while gun was still in use. These odd guns, particularly when repairs are obvious and not the best, leave much to speculation. The simple fact that the gun has quite a bit of work done to it, yet has all its inlays intact, seems to suggest the inlays are later additions since a beat up rifle usually loses some of its original inlays along the way...but we can't tell from the photos. Always a little frustration on a gun like this, when you can't examine it in hand to see what the real story is...since even the best photos leave issues unresolved. Shelby Gallien
