Northampton restock ca. 1770s or War-era.

 

This is probably Northampton Co. given the carved ‘liberty head’ forward of guard.  The buttplate, guard and lock appear to be from a European gun and the sideplate looks British, perhaps a trade gun?  Very long (51”) large bore smoothbore barrel.  Nailed-on silver wrist inlay and a bone or ivory cheek star.  The moderate carving is fairly simplistic, most notable behind the cheek.  The stock is either cherry or other fruitwood, now very dark but with deep mahogany color in good light and a slightly more ‘grainy’ quality than typically seen.  Originally this was stocked with a wooden box but a brass box was clearly added quite early in its life; the dovetail in the buttplate was neatly filled and there are a couple of different levels of repairs/mods to the box release, but some of the original wood box rails remain evident in the mortise.  Very old broken toe repair also with an added toe plate and small obvious repair to a broken guard.  This is strongly reminiscent of some surviving German or Belgian export guns of the 1760s-1780s era that made their way here, but the furnishings are considerably better quality and this one is clearly an American stocking.   The lock functions and still sparks well with a replacement mainspring (original was broken).