I recently posted a story under "Antique Accouterments" about reuniting an original Tansel bag & horn set after it had been briefly separated. The bag & horn were originally accompanied by a good quality rifle and spike tomahawk. The rifle was sold by the family long ago, and the spike tomahawk turned up "missing" from a county museum where it was on loan, but several old newspaper pictures remain that show the Tansel bag & horn along with the rifle and tomahawk.
The pictures below are the best surviving images of the rifle. There are no images showing the front butt of the rifle. But from what is visible here, does anyone have any thoughts about where this rifle was made??? Family stories place it as an early North Carolina rifle, perhaps as early as 1808, but those old stories are often a little fanciful, such as the story this rifle was a personal gift from Davy Crockett. Dates and locations simply don't support that claim. The rifle is long, very slim, with a triangular butt, oval cheekpiece with star inlay and larger round inlay behind it, and what appears to be a full, pierced side plate. If you enlarge the image, you can see the rifle better. Any ideas where this rifle might have been made?
Shelby Gallien
