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Above are Bill Fuller and the Maryland/Lancaster style Hawken-St. Louis marked rifle, The
photos were taken the summer of 1966. You can see the swamp in the octagon barrel. Note the
typical, late Maryland style brass buttplate and the late brass patch-box. I call it late because
the side plates are so plain and there is wood between the lid and the side plates. The side
plates are decorated with a wobble of ‘chicken tracks’, a simple form of engraving. The trigger
guard matches the style of the patch-box and is big enough to carry the double set trigger. The
DST trigger bar is short, in typical early Eastern style. If I had to date the rifle by those features,
I would say it was made in the East, probably Maryland, in the 1820’s.
The lock plate is also late, with the flat plate and abbreviated pointed tail of later flintlocks. It is
probably a commercial lock, imported from elsewhere and sold to the gun-making trade. The
frizzen and frizzen-spring screw-holes have not been filled, as was a common practice when
converting locks from flint to percussion yet the finish on the lock is excellent with traces of
color still present. The Hawken snail breech has filled in the flintlock pan area quite nicely.
There is a bit of wood missing from just above the forward extension of the lockplate, implying
that the rifle saw at least some use during its active life. The oil finish on the walnut is still in
good condition, there are comparatively few wear or use marks, so was sparingly used or
awfully well kept.
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