Fine Quality Carved and Silver-Mounted Deluxe Flintlock Kentucky Rifle Signed by William Holtzworth, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, c. 1820

.48 caliber, 40 3/8-inch octagonal barrel with open sights; signed at breech in script: W [six-pointed star motif] Holtzworth; three concentric rings engraved on surface of muzzle. Engraved flint lock; brass and silver mountings, including oval silver inlay cheekpiece richly engraved with patriotic American eagle and shield motif. Four engraved silver inlays on each side of fore-end of the full curly maple stock; handsomely engraved pierced brass patchbox. Engraved silver heart inlaid on each side of stock at wrist. Engraved four-pointed silver star motif inlaid beneath cheekpiece. Unusual engraved eliptical silver thumbpiece escutcheon inlay, pierced as if representing eyes in a mask. Wriggle line engraved brass sideplate. Incised intertwined scroll carving on left side of stock with crescent brass buttplate; scroll carving at wrist and border line at both sides of bottom; low relief-carved flute and line border the length of ramrod channel. Double set triggers; hickory ramrod with bone tip. Overall length: 55 5/8 inches. Weight: 12 lbs.

Condition: Very good. Gray patina to steel; pitting, wear. Barrel breech and lock reconverted to flintlock. Silver tarnished black; some bends to patchbox, where lid forced up; light loss of brass to lower extremity of patchbox by butt; bend to toeplate and minor cracking, minor loss of wood adjacent. Crack through stock at wrist; possibly old repair. Minor wood mars; lock partially secured by nail driven into stock and bent over at bottom center of lockplate.

Note: William Holtzworth recorded as a flintlock Kentucky Rifle maker, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, before and after 1820.

Henry J. Kauffman, The Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rifle, p. 267, plate 216, pictures a deluxe Hollzworth-made Kentucky rifle, prior to re-conversion to flintlock. Holtzworth was known for piercing of sideplates on patchboxes, as well as on toeplates, and for incised carving.
Joe Kindig, Jr., notes on p. 128 of Thoughts on the Kentucky Rifle in Its Golden Age that he had seen a rattlesnake design patchbox finial on a W. Holtzworth rifle.

Estimate: $1000 - $1500