Description
• 392 pages
• over 1200 color photographs
• completing 27 years of work
• showing 213 North Carolina longrifles
• includes chapter on North Carolina powder horns
• plus chapter on NC Confederate guns, swords, accoutrements, and more
• a valuable resource for students of history
• a must have definitive work for collectors and historians
• museum and heirloom quality printing on 80 lb. silk paper
Antique arms collectors, museum curators, and historians have long sought more information on the American longrifle. This work is the result of forty years of study of the North Carolina longrifle. Longrifles, which are also known as Kentucky rifles, truly are uniquely American and are known for their aesthetic qualities. Their sheer beauty and art work places them among the greatest of the early American decorative arts. The author presents a selected collection of North Carolina longrifles and identifies nine (9) different schools or groups with similar decorative features and characteristics. The book surveys the North Carolina longrifle from the eighteenth century to the end of the Confederate period in 1865. The chapter on the Confederate arms and accoutrements is a valuable addition to this treatise. There are over 1200 color photographs! This is an exceptional work that expands the knowledge and importance of the North Carolina Kentucky rifle as an art form with its added historical significance.
Kenneth Orr, also a longrifle collector and member of the Kentucky Rifle Association, did the photography. He has been a professional photographer for over 40 years and produced phenomenal images that are a highlight of this book. In the future, it may well be impossible to duplicate this extensive survey of photography of so many North Carolina longrifles. Rifles will be moved and longrifle collections dispursed and will not be available; thus it is a must for the interested student, collector or historian.
