Differnce between early and late Lancasters

[dave_person]

Hi,
It is "Christian's Spring" not "Christian Springs". It was a Moravian settlement and guns made there varied in style depending on who was the master of the shop. The Moravian communities of nearby Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Lancaster were connected and gunmakers like Andreas Albrecht and Jacob Dickert moved between them. Today, the Edward Marshall rifle is used as a model for guns made at Christian's Spring. Unfortunately, it is not at all certain that it was made there. Other guns popular now and commonly called "Christian's Spring" copy the style of one gunsmith, Christian Oerter, who was master of the shop from 1766-1777. Other masters had different styles, some very similar to styles made in Lancaster, so the label "Christian's Spring" is really ambiguous.

dave

 

[hanshi]

Zonie, the top one certainly does look very "Germanic". I love the longrifle but I also really, really like the Jaegerish rifles, too.

 

[Artificer]

Prior to his untimely passing, Gary Brumfield (Past Master of the Gun Shop at Colonial Williamsburg) published this original letter from Christian Oerter:

Christiansbrunn, the 9th September, 1773

Most valued Friend Martin Baer,

At your request I have prepared [completed/finished] a good rifle and sent it over to Mr. John Hopson together with 4 pounds of Powder. The rifle is decorated [inlaid] with silver wire and well made, as well as tested and she shoots right well. It has a double trigger, so that you can fire with the triggers either unset or set. Between the triggers there is a screw with which you can make it lighter or harder to fire. There is also a ball puller with which you can pull the ball out no matter how rusty she gets. She costs 8 pounds all together and with the powder @ 3 shillings per pound makes twelve shillings, for a total of L8.12.-. Because it is very good powder I have added two pounds more than you requested. I hope it will suit you well. You can write me a couple lines to let me know how you like it. Together with friendliest greetings I am your faithful

friend and servant,

Christian Oerter

Gunmaker

Gary also had some interesting comments on this letter mentioned in the following link:
http://www.flintriflesmith.com/WritingandResearch/WebArticles/1773 Letter from Gunmaker.htm

Gus

P.S. Dave, I REALLY like your description of three periods of Long Rifles. :thumbsup:

 

[tenngun]

We need to keep in mind that people back then didn't make guns of any of our discriptions. They made rifle guns. Any 'school' was a name given after the fact. There were guns that mixed late and early styles. Someone started making a thinner stock, that wasn't as thin as late, or as wide as early, maybe double triggers on an early gun ect ect. Queen Ann put on too 'late' or a German lock were a English lock is the 'school' ect. We look for red or orange or yellow, they built in a rainbow.

 

[Vaino]

Good points. To make things "organized", we have to categorize LRs into "schools" and include any LRs that have any common characteristics that we have determined.

Early and late characteristics of Lancaster LRs are sometimes intermingled as the Lancasters evolved from the beginning LRs to the later ones. Also...the time span from "early" to "late" wasn't that long....although Lancasters did take longer to fully evolve than most schools....100 yrs?

Bucks County and Lehigh LRs had a much shorter evolution time span.... approx. 30 yrs?

I like it that LRs are classified into "schools".... makes building them a lot easier. Although there are exceptions of LRs not fitting into any "school", these exceptions can be built, but they shouldn't be an excuse to amass a bunch of disparate parts and build a "Frankenstein:" creation. Don't agree w/..."it's your gun, so build it as you will".

I must post a disclaimer on the above info because I'm not an expert....just rendering an opinion.....Fred

 

[tenngun]

I was only adding a note of caution as to defining a school from a set of rules the old timers didn't use. I don't mean you should put Harper's ferry trigger guard on a southern style stock then add Lancaster type carving and patch box. :nono: if you want a Lancaster try to make a Lancaster not a lancamaravirgianan.
However the waters did get muddied. By 1800 'The Civilized Tribes' sported a few gunsmiths who were building guns from multi broken and damaged pieces and turning out some frankenstine . Hard use of plane guns often resulted in 'field modifications' like home made trigger guards modified check plates ect.

 

[Vaino]

I agree w/ what you stated....just added .....Fred