Page 152 - 88-BOOK3

These full-stock Hawken rifles are highly sought after but less well- known than the half-stock rifles thanks to fewer surviving examples.
A similar J. & S. Hawken marked full stock rifle was chosen by John D. Baird to be in his portrait on the back of his books “Hawken Rifles: The Mountain Man’s Choice” and “Fifteen Years in the Hawken Lode” and on the first page of his “Full Stock Hawken Rifles” chapter in the former. Also see page 2 of the first book for another similar “J. & S. Hawken” rifle attributed by Baird to the 1830-1840 period. The Latter Day Saints Church History Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah, also has a full-stock J. & S. Hawken rifle attributed to Mormon pioneer John Brown and shown on pages 38-40 of Bob Woodfill’s recent “The Hawken Rifle” book. That rifle has similar architecture but somewhat different components. It is also a close match to the “S. HAWKEN ST. LOUIS” marked full-stock rifle in the Buffalo Bill Center of the West (see the museum website and pages 77-80 of Woodfill’s book).
CONDITION: Fine. The iron mainly displays an untouched, original smooth mixed gray and brown patina along with some minor oxidation and pitting. The rear upper tang screw is a replacement, and the hammer has some repairs at the face. The overall wear is fairly minor for a Hawken rifle. The stock is also fine and has some dings and scratches, faint hairline cracks, some small repairs at the edges of the barrel and upper tang mortises, and general mild wear consistent with the metal. Mechanically fine. This is a very attractive and solid representative example of a rare S. Hawken signed full-stock rifle. Most of the surviving Hawken full-stock rifles known are signed J. & S. Hawken making this
a rare later example built in the 1850s while the West was still being explored and contested.
Provenance: The Greg Lampe Collection.
Estimate: 45,000 - 65,000\
150