William Lamb & Son half stock original percussion rifle, marked "W Lamb & Son" to top of 40" octagonal barrel, with the Roman numeral "VI" on left side near breech. Brass butt plate, fore end cap, ramrod thimbles, dovetailed front sight, and trigger guard; double-set triggers, scrollwork-engraved lock plate and hammer; silver geometric inlays on right and left side of stock including false wedge inlays; ca. mid 19th Century .41 cal., barrel 40" L, overall 56 1/2".

Note: William Lamb became arguably the most well-known of the Guilford County, NC school of gunmakers centered around the Quaker village of Jamestown in the mid 1800's.

Note: Walter Matson Cline (1873-1941) was a Chattanooga, TN, photographer and preeminent historian and collector of muzzle loading firearms. His book "the Muzzle-Loading Rifle Then and Now" became the authority on the history of black powder firearms when it was published in 1942, shortly after his death. The National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association, of which Cline was an early member, is headquartered in Friendship, IN, and is home to the Walter Cline shooting range. As this is an antique black powder firearm, no FFL is necessary.

PROVENANCE: By descent from the estate of Walter M. Cline, Chattanooga, Tennessee.

CONDITION: Hammer, set and release triggers operational, clean bore; percussion cylinder is newer, hammer with stress crack, stock cracked at forend and in front of lock plate, wood refinished, rod missing, tang filed down slightly, some screws replaced.