patchbox

[horseman]

I've been wondering which is the earlier style Southern patch box, the banana or the Bean.  I've looked, most likely in the wrong places, and found lots of info, but no specific dates.  Thank you for your time and help.  Bud.

[RAT]

I've also been on a quest to find the earliest example of the "banana". I'm not sure what a Bean style is. I've always described the patchboxes used by the Bean family as "banana" style. If there's a difference, I'd sure like to be enlightened.

Best I can find is that what we call a "banana" dates at least as early as 1810-1815.

[Mark Elliott]

I thought the Beans sometimes used banana patchboxes.   I wasn't aware there was a Bean style.    The E. TN rifles of 1820 and later had what have been described as banana patchboxes.  However,   you can see similar patchboxes on VA and NC rifles of the same period.   As one old time collector said,  those folks who lived down in the mountains didn't  know which state they lived in.   

[louieparker]

In my opinion the Tenn iron patch box is better described with the word cigar than  banana. I have never seen a box close the shape of a banana but I have to a cigar.. Several years ago cigar was the common description. At least that I heard. I have never heard a box described as a Bean box..  But about  50 years ago there was an article on the Bean rifle. If you had an iron mounted rifle everyone wanted to know if it was a Bean..If it was iron it had to be a Bean.. So maybe Bean box ?

[flinchrocket]

I did a quick google search of Baxter Bean rifle and looked at a signed Baxter Bean and a signed Charles Sr. The boxes appear quite similar and are cigar shaped as Mr. Parker states. Maybe not enough to
establish a pattern, but you wouldn't be wrong using it on a Bean rifle

[WadePatton]

I agree that a banana/cigar refer to the same general shape.  And see lots of variations, curious as to which variant you attach "Bean" too.  I just glanced at 4 or 5 Bean rifles by 4 Beans and see two variations on

their "banana boxes".


Yes, "cigar" is a better descriptor, but "cigar box" sounds like something else entirely, so I say "banana box" to refer to the long slim boxes of sheet iron.

[horseman]

Thank you for the replies.  I totally agree that the Tenn. box is more cigar shaped!  I've just read of  and heard a few people call them a  banana box.  The Bean box that I saw was on some catalog site that found by accident.  It was a shorter box and the ends were much more round than the Tenn. box.  Again, thank you all for the information and helping me stay on course.  Bud.   

[RAT]

Rotate the banana so it's not laying on it's side, and you don't see the curve. You're looking at the top or bottom and it does look somewhat like these patchboxes. Just saying...

I'm not the one who started describing them that way, It's been a term that seems to have been used for awhile.