When it comes to Somerset County muzzleloaders as folk art, the rifle pictured below is one of my personal favorites. It was made by the 19th century gunmaker Benjamin Franklin Troutman of Southampton Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania. This curly maple-stocked rifle has incised and relief carving, a commercially manufactured lock, a four-piece patch box with seven piercings, and numerous silver decorations, such as a cheekpiece inlay, a pick holder, and barrel key escutcheons. The most interesting thing to me, however, is an intriguing silver inlay that depicts a person.
This full stock rifle is featured on pages 166 and 167 of the now rare 2001 book "Gunsmiths of Bedford, Fulton, Huntington, & Somerset Counties" by James B. Whisker and Larry W. Yantz, and on pages 53 to 55 of the 2017 book "Gunsmiths of Somerset County, Pennsylvania" by James B. Whisker. Some of the photos in the 2017 book show the rifle before it was cleaned up.
Photos of the rifle
The right-hand side of the buttstock
In addition to the profile of the buttstock, also note the relief carving in the wrist area and the wave-shaped incised carving that runs along the lower edge of the buttstock. The use of wavy lines as decorative carved and engraved features is found on other Benjamin Troutman rifles.
The buttstock incorporates an attractive engraved four-piece brass patch box with seven complex piercings. The asymmetric finial is retained to the buttstock with screws, and the side plates are retained with nails that appear to be made from silver. The shape of the rear half of the side plates, including the piercings, is very similar to the side plates on the signed "A. Kopp" rifle that is shown on page 442 of the "Emmitsburg School" chapter of Kindig's 1960 book "The Kentucky Rifle in its Golden Age". The patch box finial, including the shape of its piercing, is very similar to the finial on the same "A. Kopp" rifle.
One silver inlay is located just forward of the upper end of the cast brass buttplate, and another is located on the wrist, just rearward of the raised panel for the gun lock. A silver thumb plate is visible on the upper side of the wrist, and appears to conceal a screw that retains the rear portion of the trigger plate to the stock — notice the projecting screw threads on the underside of the wrist. The trailing end of the raised lock panel is pointed — a design feature that is often encountered on Somerset and Bedford county rifles. Unlike so many antique black powder rifles, the delicate toe of the stock is not broken.
The photo also shows the rear portion of the cast brass trigger guard. If you look closely, you can see the transverse metal pin that retains the rear portion of the trigger guard to the stock.
A top view of the breech area
The tang is secured with a single tang screw. The shape of the breech plug tang is non-typical for Bedford and Somerset counties, and resembles the tang of the John Armstrong rifle that is shown on page 445 of the "Emmitsburg School" chapter of Kindig's 1960 book "The Kentucky Rifle in its Golden Age". That Armstrong rifle also has a somewhat similarly-shaped inlay wrapping around its breech plug tang.
The toe plate
The lock panel area of the gun stock
A closeup of the gun lock
Note the frizzen spring roller, which allows the lock to function faster and more smoothly. The excellent condition of the wood near the lock and the lack of corrosion on the breech indicate that this rifle has not been fired very often. The periphery of the engraved lock plate is beveled, and the bottom edge of the plate is slightly concave. The tail of the lock plate is blunt, and steps down in thickness at a vertical slash-like feature. Unlike the lock plates of the classic slender Bedford County rat tail flintlocks, the lower edge of this lock plate does not incorporate a "lump" to accommodate the frizzen screw. The frizzen spring and roller have a different color than the remainder of the lock, which suggests they may be modern replacements. Because of the lack of engraving on the hammer/cock, I wonder if it may be an older replacement.
The entry pipe area
An engraved silver inlay is visible on the underside of the forearm. The metal cross-pin that retains the entry pipe to the stock is visible. The rifle has incised carving above and forward of the formed brass entry pipe. The tubular portion of the entry pipe is faceted. The rear sight is located above the front end of the entry pipe.
The inlay near the entry pipe
The fore-end
The muzzle of the Troutman flintlock rifle
The left-hand side of the buttstock
The cheekpiece inlay and vent pick holder
The lock bolt plate and mating panel
The inlay that depicts a person
The figure represented by the inlay is very similar to a figure carved into the same stock location on a rifle that is illustrated on page 175 of the "Bethlehem School" chapter of Kindig's 1960 book "The Kentucky Rifle in its Golden Age". The two figures have enough similarities to make it clear that they somehow trace to the same original source.
Kindig’s caption for the page 175 photo indicates that the carving represents an "Indian Head" and states that such figures were sometimes incorporated on rifles made in the vicinity of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In the body text of the "Bethlehem School" chapter, most of Kindig's references to such figures are less definitive, and merely suggest that the figures might be intended to represent Indians. Page 155 uses may, page 167 uses "possibly", and page 168 uses "perhaps". Page 184 mentions one such figure being used as a silver inlay on a rifle by Peter Moll.
Theories abound regarding what these intriguing figures represent. Page 5 of the 2001 book "Gunsmiths of Bedford, Fulton, Huntington, & Somerset Counties" indicates that such figures have been referred to as Indian heads, angels, and liberty caps. A gun collector who lives in western Pennsylvania suggested that the figures may be patriotic representations of Columbia (a feminine personification of America) wearing a liberty cap. Such caps have long been a symbol of freedom in America, and elsewhere. They are the lineal descendant of the cap known as a pileus that was given to Roman slaves when they were emancipated.
Although I don’t claim to know what the inlay figure represents, I am at least open to the liberty cap-related interpretations. For one reason, that thing on the figure’s head just doesn't look like an Indian headdress to me. For another reason, I couldn’t find a better explanation when I looked through all the hats and hair styles in R. Turner Wilcox's profusely illustrated 1945 book "The Modes in Hats and Headdress". Also, as an American citizen, and as the son of a Revolutionary War soldier, Benjamin Troutman was surely aware of the patriotic symbolism of the liberty cap, and of Columbia. Nevertheless, since he copied the figure from somewhere, he may have been completely unaware of, or ambivalent to, any originally intended meaning.
After wrestling with the mystery of what the figure represents, I finally realized that I don’t have to know the answer in order to love the inlay. Who knows; maybe Benjamin Troutman felt the same way!
Page 117 of William S. Bowers' book "Gunsmiths of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia" shows another rifle Benjamin Troutman made that has a similar inlay in front of the trigger guard. That rifle, which is signed "B* Troutman" on a silver barrel inlay, is also shown on pages 138 and 139 of the 1991 book "Gunsmiths of Bedford, Somerset and Fulton Counties" by Vaughn and James B. Whisker. The buttstock of that rifle also has the wavy line that seems to be a "trademark" decoration of Benjamin Troutman.
Enlarged views of the figure inlay
The next photo is in shadow, which causes some features of the inlay show up more clearly.
Liberty (Phrygian) cap illustrations
I have seen various patriotic illustrations of Columbia wearing a liberty cap (also known as a Phrygian cap), or holding one on a pole. I have included several images here to provide more context for the liberty cap discussion above.
A 20th century drawing of Columbia
A 19th century drawing of Columbia
The bust of Attis with a Phrygian cap
For additional information on liberty caps, including how to make them, see the article titled "The Liberty Cap" in the April, 1976 issue of the "Muzzle Blasts" magazine.
Click here for an index to additional Somerset County rifle pictures.
The first photo included below shows the right-hand side of the buttstock, which does not have the classic Somerset/Bedford county straight line-based profile. Instead, the comb profile is noticeably convex, and the belly profile is slightly concave. The best profile match I can find is the buttstocks on the signed Andrew Kopp rifles on pages 440 and 441 of the "Emmitsburg School" chapter of Joeseph Kindig's 1960 book "The Kentucky Rifle in its Golden Age".
The next photo provides a top view of the tang and wrist area of the rifle. It shows the elliptical silver thumb plate on the top of the wrist, and the engraved inlay that wraps around the tang of the breech plug. Both inlays appear to be retained to the stock with silver nails.
The following photo shows the fancy engraved silver toe plate of the Troutman rifle. The toe plate appears to be retained to the stock by silver nails. The finial of this toe plate is unusually elaborate, compared to typical Somerset and Bedford county long rifles. The photo also shows the opening in the rear end of the vent pick holder.
The next photo provides an overview of the stock in the vicinity of the lock. The wrist inlay just to the rearward of the pointed trailing end of the lock panel is shaped like one form of the Ace of Spades that was used on playing cards in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The rifle incorporates a double set trigger arrangement. Pulling the curved set trigger (rear trigger) sets the less-curved hair trigger (front trigger), which has a very light trigger pull. The head of the trigger adjustment screw is visible between the triggers.
The next photo provides a closeup view of the lock on the Troutman rifle. It is a commercially manufactured "waterproof" lock that is stamped "Maslin Warranted" and has a gooseneck hammer. In a waterproof lock, the pan is separated from the bridle and the fence. This arrangement prevents water running off of the bridle and fence from entering the pan.
The following photograph provides a view of the right-hand side of the ramrod entry pipe area of the Troutman rifle. The rifle incorporates delightful half-moon-shaped engraved silver escutcheons for the barrel keys. To me at least, the use of keys instead of pins is surprising.
The next photo shows the engraved silver inlay that is located on the underside of the forearm and just rearward of the entry pipe. The photo also shows how much the nearest barrel key projects from the left and right sides of the gun stock.
The next photo provides a view of the right-hand side of the fore-end of the rifle, and features the barrel key escutcheons, ramrod pipes, linear incised carving, and nose cap. There is no evidence visible in this photo that would indicate the barrel was ever set back. The forestock and nose cap appear to have the same transverse cross-sectional shape, rather than the stock having a step-down to match the shape of the nose cap. The brass ramrod pipes have rounded ends and faceted center sections. The silver blade-type front sight on the top flat of the barrel is located above the rear end of the nose cap.
The following photo shows the muzzle and cut rifling of this nicely decorated rifle. The bore of the full-octagonal barrel has seven grooves. The muzzle end of the barrel incorporates three concentric circles that bracket two circles of decorative recesses. The crack in the end of the grooved brass nose cap informs us that the nose cap is formed from sheet metal.
The following photo shows the left-hand side of the buttstock of the Benjamin Troutman flintlock rifle, including the vent pick holder and the elliptic cheekpiece inlay. Have a look at the relief carving forward and rearward of the cheekpiece, and the wavy incised carving along the lower edge of the buttstock. At the toe, some checking of the wood reveals that the local grain of the stock is aligned with the belly of the stock. That favorable orientation would make the toe less prone to breakage, compared to the typical horizontal grain orientation. The checking is less severe on the right-hand side of the buttstock, but still visible.
The following photo provides a closeup view of the vent pick holder and cheekpiece inlay on the Troutman rifle. The inlay is engraved with a very common patriotic engraving theme: A spread-wing eagle with a shield. One foot of the eagle is grasping a sheaf of arrows and the other is grasping an olive branch.
The next photo highlights the engraved silver lock bolt plate on the Troutman rifle, and the associated raised panel of the stock. The lock bolt plate is flat and unbeveled, and its upper edge is fancier than most. The plate appears to be substantially flush with the surface of the raised panel. The gun lock is secured to the stock by a pair of lock bolts. The stock panel has the streamlined tail that is featured on a number of Bedford County, Pennsylvania muzzle loading rifles. An ace of spades-shaped silver inlay is located to the rear of the tail of the stock panel.
The following image provides an overview of an inlay that is located just forward of the trigger guard. Closeup views of the inlay are provided farther below.
The next photo provides a larger view of the figure inlay on the Troutman rifle.
The image that follows is a World War I era depiction of Columbia wearing a liberty cap and an American flag-themed dress.
The following postcard illustrates Columbia wearing a liberty cap. The image was obtained from the Library of Congress, which indicates the postcard is from 1861.
The basic style of the liberty cap dates to antiquity. The image that follows shows a second century AD bust of Attis with a Phrygian cap. (Cabinet des Medailles).
