Relief Carved Percussion Altered Longrifle by Abraham Schweitzer

.48 caliber. 41.5" wedge-retained octagonal barrel. SN: NSN. Browned finish, brass furniture, full-length maple stock with raised cheek rest. Barrel altered to percussion via the drum method is signed "A Schweitzer" in script between the rear sight and the breech. Percussion altered commercial lock with light engraving and no legible markings has a hammer with a somewhat unique and awkward appearance with a low, thin spur and with the hammer nose showing a raised carved snake head and eyes. Hammer neck with simple decorative engraving. Lock equipped with adjusable double-set triggers. Barrel with a dovetailed notch rear sight and dovetailed German silver front sight blade in brass base. Stock with a lovely four-piece brass patchbox in a style that is typical of rifles produced in the Lancaster area during a slightly later period, with exposed wood between the outer legs of the patchbox and the door. Patchbox is lightly engraved with the work executed in a simple but very attractive manner. The toe plate probably doubled as the release for the door but the mechanism is not currently functional. Toe plate lightly engraved as is the two-screw side plate. Additional brass hardware include an extended finger spur triggerguard, a simple nose cap and faceted ramrod pipes with baluster turned rings at their ends. Cheek rest inlaid with a lovely German silver oval that is engraved with a folk art Spread-Winged American Eagle bearing the Shield of Columbia with the usual arrows and olive branches in its talons. The reverse butt is decorated with Rococo raised carvings with flowing C-shaped scrolls and foliate motifs and with shell decorations on both sides of the wrist. Simple incised lines decorate the toe line of the stock and the lower edge of the forend. Additional German silver decorations include stylized hearts at the rear of the lock mortise and the counterpane, an oval thumb piece and two additional decorative pieces to the rear of the entry pipe. A wood rammer is secured by the pipes. Abraham Schweitzer initially worked in Lancaster, PA circa 1794 but relocated to Antrim Township in Franklin County PA circa 1804. By 1805 he was working in Chambersburg, where he would remain though the early 1820s. Schweitzer was married to the sister of renowned Pennsylvania rifle maker Melchior Fordney, so it is likely that the two men had at least a small influence on each others work in the field. The rifle has a very nice, untouched and unmolested appearance and displays wonderfully. A really attractive example of a Golden Age "Kentucky" Rifle from a true artist.

This lot is located in Cincinnati.

The Collection of Larry Ness