Rich,
I've never understood why some make such a fuss over this rifle. Help me out.
Jim
Jim, I’ll do my best to try to express how this rifle (Peter Resor rifle on page 39 of Steel Canvas and featured by Shumway in Muzzle Blasts March 1988; often called the Ghost rifle because of the unique figure engraved on the patchbox finial) impresses me, but sometimes it’s the sum of the parts and maybe some reactions are subconscious and hard to know, let alone articulate. In general I'm not crazy excited about 1770's and later rifles. I love them, but am not excited like I get for earlier guns. While some have placed this gun as quite early, I cannot see it as pre-1770, but I can see 42 as pre-1770. For the sake of discussion I will compare my “scores” for the Ghost rifle by Roesser to my scores for a "truly great" rifle, RCA 42. To me this one (Ghost rifle) is in the same class as the Newcomer gun we're talking about, which also impresses me greatly as a distinctive early rifle. First time I saw 42, in Kentucky Rifles and Pistols 1750-1850, all other guns in the book paled in comparison. First time I saw the Ghost rifle in Shumways MB article, I had the same reaction. In some ways (I am baiting you here) I find it equally or more distinctive than 42. RCA 42 has a patchbox that is important as one of the earliest side-opening patchbox, but the box is plain; without any interesting artistic design. The patchbox of Ghost by comparison is visually much more interesting and is decorated with a unique engraving of a ghost on the finial. The architecture of the Ghost rifle is clean and muscular, masculine, same as I'd describe #42. Both are in my mind evolved longrifles. I can see the Germanic roots but the bulk is gone by now for 42, Ghost, Newcomer. The furniture on Ghost is exquisitely crafted and close to other Lancaster and York rifles; the furniture on 42 is close to other CS rifles; this equals a draw in my mind, where I am scorekeeper. I give bonus points to Ghost for the cameo wrist , which is distinctive, not a Dickert copy, and highlighted nicely by little cuts adjacent to it on the buttstock. The cheekpiece and comb termination on Ghost are of the mini-school that includes Newcomer, Roesser, Free Born, some Schroyers, so there’s little novelty there; =draw with 42 for these areas. The carving behind the cheekpiece of Ghost, while not classical rococo, is superbly executed in relief and related to Free Born, Newcomer, Kindig 18, and a Schroyer-attributed rifle, RCA 92, which may be a Roessor in my mind. But the Ghost cheekpiece carving is completely distinctive in design. 42 has superb but not unique cheekpiece carving that is closely linked to a great many CS and Lancaster guns. However, to me the rest of the crazy and strong buttstock carving on 42 is in a class by itself. Like 42, Ghost has a beautiful lock. Within that mini-school that exists in my mind, the Ghost rifle is a great and highly distinctive rifle. I would not say much more than that in summarizing 42, except that it is an important roots gun for side-openers, like the Deschler rifle is, or the Leyendecker rifle was.
