I appreciate the conversation. BTW, I did not intend any religious sensitivity, though it’s good to be respectful, as Moravian congregations continue. Their members would wonder “what on earth a Moravian” was/is, referring to a rifle! I remember showing a magazine ad for a “Christian’s Spring rifle” to the director and curator of the Moravian Hist Soc some years back. They chuckled, and wondered what made it fit that title? The rifle was a generic Lancaster style, but the term was borrowed to add mystery and value?
Some think that “Moravian” implies an early rifle. A friend wrote to say “ ‘Moravian’ is just a description of the early eastern Pa. longrifle built in or near Christian Springs Pa. Usually step wristed, thick and beefy, these guns were the beginning of the Pa longrifle . . . were or are called Moravian, Christian Springs or Transitional rifles.”
The gunshop at Bethlehem, then moved to C’s Spring operated from about 1750 through 1790. At least some rifles made there had the buttplate tang inlet into comb and a stepped wrist. As time passed the step faded, rifles slimmed, locks and mounts changed, an arrowhead sideplate. New men and boys explored new ideas like wire in lieu of carving. So even if we use Bethlehem or C’s Spring as a descriptor, it’s helpful to use an approximate time period.
Wm Henry, Jr ran the shop after Christian Oerter became ill in 1776, but left and moved two miles to Nazareth. The pair of pistols he made are 1770 English in style and probably made soon after his move. Since the shop had mixed imported components, they probably repaired, restocked and stocked new arms in a variety of styles. Also built muskets to the pattern, and perhaps some military rifles to a pattern during the War years.
Rifles made at Lancaster, Reading and Lebanon did not generally have a stepped wrist, the buttplate tang was not inlet, and their work also changed over time. These men also considered themselves Moravians at some level. Beck moved to North Carolina in 1764, and Albrecht to Lititz in 1771, but their rifles probably did not change profoundly on the day they arrived. Again, time and place help us imagine what they might have stocked.
In my case, “Moravian” is just so broad that it doesn’t tell me what the builder is channeling. A “stepped wrist Bethlehem / C’s Spring rifle ca 1760” is descriptive. Or an Oerter 1775 rifle with wire in lieu of carving, or a Dickert / Graeff / Gonter Lancaster style ca 1770. Then we can compare new work to the old, and appreciate your interpretation.
“Transition” has the same issues for me, since rifles were always in transition. Change from European trained to colonial design is a fascinating topic – the signed I Berlin rifle comes to mind, as it seems a fully developed, long and slim American rifle but still with that wide butt and fantastic old world carving. Or transition from wood box to brass with all those interesting lids, latches and springs. Transition in style when Henry Albright went from Lancaster to Chambersburg - or from another current post, how a “Lancaster rifle” changed from 1760 to the western fur trade ca 1830. Bob
