RCA 104, Stofil Smith, and the ugly birds head patchbox rifle

[rich pierce]

Renewing a discussion with Chris Immel over here. Others please jump in.

Chris, that rifle you mentioned that was discussed here http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=48179.0 does seem very similar architecturally to RCA 104. Now what about RCA 84?  Has always fascinated me. Where might it have been made?  And do you see similarities in the buttstock carving of 84 and the Stophil Smith rifle?

And how many ways can one misspell Stophel?

[Stophel]

I still don't know if the gun in the ALR library is actually signed or not.  The carving, patchbox, and all are rather Stoffill Smith-like.  I don't have any top-down views of the signed Smith Wender rifles, but I would love to see if those cheekpieces stick out wide at the front like these do.  I do feel pretty strongly that 104 and the ALR exhibit gun are by the same guy.  I would guess about 1790.

RCA 84 is pretty cool.  One is VERY tempted to say it is a relatively early Allemaengel gun...  I don't know  (I'm trying to refamiliarize myself with just what the Allemaengel area covers, different townships, etc.  been a long time since I looked at all that). It has the pre-Revolutionary elements of a Lehigh/Northampton gun (the stepped wrist, the familiar carving design behind the cheekpiece), but executed with a very folk art flair.  It would be really nice to be able to see it in it's original condition, with its original parts, but we should consider ourselves lucky to be able to see it at all, I suppose.  I can imagine a sliding wood patchbox lid, and a triggerguard much like the ones on the bayonet and lion Christians' Spring guns.

"And how many ways can one misspell Stophel?"  .... I don't know... the guy couldn't even spell Schmidt right!   

[Stophel]

In "Behold, the Longrifle", there is a signed and dated 1817 Stoffil Smith rifle that shows top-down, and you can see the cheekpiece sticks out a little more in the front than the rear, but not nearly as prominently as those on 104 and the exhibit guns.

I think the carving on the Smith guns is in line with others of the Eastern and Northern Berks county areas (assuming that's where he was, he apparently has not been reliably located yet???  Windsor township? which is the north end of the county).  That style of work is seen in guns like RCA 65, and other "Bucks county-ish" guns, which I am inclined to believe are also made in Berks county.  The carving on 84 I think is well within the carving range for this region, but it's also not quite like Stoffil Smith, or RCA 65 either.

[DaveM]

looked at this link and just noticed Eric's note to me.  Sorry Eric, my visits to the forum have not been as regular and I must have missed this post in Feb.   I can check my notes on Smith, I do remember looking for this guy but honestly have no idea what if anything I found because it was years ago.  I think Windsor Township does make sense stylistically - I had a gun not long ago I attributed to Abraham Angstadt that had this very similar "Berks" patchbox style, though this gun has obvious other differences.  My point being that Hamburg berks County would be the most obvious / populated location in Windsor Twp (I had ancestors in Windsor Twp just outside of Hamburg).  And if I remember accurately Angstadt moved from the Kutztown area to Orwigsburg in the early 1800's - so stylistically if Smith worked near Hamburg, that would make sense and maybe even some Angstadt influence (either Angstadt influenced Smith or vice versa?) .  I was pretty convinced from my gun that Angstadt used this very "Berks" style patchbox at least sometimes.

[DaveM]

I found a deed from 1805 where Christopher Smith, noted as a gunsmith, transferred a property in Windsor Township (Hamburg vicinity) Berks County to another party.  And Christopher had obtained the property in 1780, so he is quite an early maker.  By 1805 he was noted as living in Brunswick Township, berks county.  This later became just over the line into Schuylkill County, not far from Orwigsburg.  I do think A. Angstadt may have worked for Smith since the patchbox styles were very similar and both worked near Orwigsburg.

[DaveM]

Actually I think the year he bought this Windsor Twp property actually reads 1789, not 1780 (the stem of the 9 is missing).  This makes more sense in the line of ownership described.