Percussion Longrifle

This is one of the finest, if not the finest, example of a longrifle made in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania during the late stages of the American longrifle, or Kentucky rifle, tradition, which lasted from about 1770 to 1850. It displays all the major characteristics of a Huntingdon rifle: slim architecture, particularly the shoulder stock, which is small, thin, and has straight lines top and bottom; a deeply engraved brass patch box with a recessed hinge; an absence of either incised or relief carving; a large number of engraved silver inlays; a straight trigger that resembles a small, lathe-turned post; and a heavy barrel.

This rifle is outstanding for several reasons. Chief among these is the artistic conception, design, and execution of its silver inlays. The inlays on Huntingdon County rifles are often random in both shape and placement, whereas on this rifle not only are they attractively designed but they are also arranged across the entire surface of the gunstock in a balanced and cohesive way. In addition, the number of inlays is extraordinary––82 in all, compared to 20 to 30 inlays usually seen. This gave rise to the rifle’s affectionate moniker, “the silver collection,” bestowed on it by T. J. and Edith Cooper, husband and wife collectors who discovered it in a farmhouse in the 1930s not far from where it was originally made. The engraving is of the highest quality, not only on the silver inlays but also on the delicate and beautifully formed brass patch box, and the top flat of the barrel, showing the gunmaker’s great skill and the ability to work in silver, brass, and steel. This corresponds well with recent research identifying the signature B. J. Kough, as it appears on the rifle’s barrel, with Benjamin J. Kough (1824–1850), who is recorded both as a gunsmith and silversmith. Very few rifles exist by the sadly short-lived Kough, and this is undoubtedly his masterpiece. It represents the last period in which longrifles were a uniquely American art form, individually commissioned, conceived, and handcrafted, before being subsumed by mechanization.