Curious Inlay on Evans Repeating Rifle

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theshephard

theshephard

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Hi Folks,
I have a new model Evans repeating rifle, circa 1878, which has a curious medallion laid into the foregrip. It’s not just tacked on but recessed, and well done - the relatively small cross grain cut outs are cleaner than casual.

The letters in the circle appear to be S K L O with perhaps an upside down WV or VW at the bottom, or perhaps a stylized MA or AM right side up.

Within the circle is a triangle with what may be the scales of justice.

Does anyone have any idea what this medallion represents? Perhaps a private owner, an organization, an award. Maybe SKLO is an abbreviation for a motto? Its set with the top pointing towards the muzzle, so doesn’t seem to make sense as a decoration for a display that would be hung horizontally. It’s on the right side, so would be visible to the shooter.

For what it’s worth, this is the sporting model with checkering also on the foregrip.

thanks for any creative ideas!!

Inlaid medallion on foregrip of Evans rifle

Inlaid medallion on foregrip of Evans rifle

This medallion is a mystery to me, so hoping someone has some ideas or answers.
Close up of medallion on Evans rifle

Close up of medallion on Evans rifle

Letters are SKLO with perhaps a WV or MA at base
 
Yes, that’s it! A guy on Reddit pinned this down and I’ve spent basically most of the evening and this morning diving down that rabbit hole. Really interesting.

Knights of Labor was originally a secret society and eventually “went public” and became a very large national organized labor group. Nearly one million members in the 1880’s. They were tightly associated with the “Great Upheaval” in 1877, which was comprised of many strikes and riots kicking off around the country which turned quite violent, even turned into gun battles, etc. This inlaid medallion was originally a brooch. The auction site has the lettering wrong though - instead of “SAMO”, it’s “SOMA”, for Secrecy, Obedience, Mutual Assistance.

The founder was a mason and based a lot of their ritual and oaths on the same. He was opposed to socialism and radicalism, preferring boycotts over labor strikes, but it seems the membership radicalized and elected a new guy who did away with the secret society stuff and turned it more into a union. As opposed to modern day unions, they organized across trades and, unusually for the time, organized with African-Americans and women. They were violently opposed to Asian-Americans, unfortunately, and have a pretty dark record in that regard, particularly in Tacoma, WA.

I wish I knew more about the intersection of this rifle and the KoL. The new model Evans was made between 1877 and 1879, and had a “high capacity magazine”, holding 28 rounds of .44 cal. Earlier models could hold 34. The design used an Archimedes screw to move rounds up from the stock to the chamber. Unfortunately there were no serial numbers and as far as I know so far, no factory records to indicate what was sold and to whom.

Also, clearly I need to improve my Google-fu. I tried a reverse image search and came up with nothing.
 
When i did the google search it was a ways down.

Looks like you have a possibly storied rifle. Aside from the fact it was the first assault rifle in terms of sheer lead able to go down range. Should be a fun rabbit hole!

Fun fact, Charles Boycott was a 19th century English landowner who was shunned by workers and consumers, leading to the term boycott, as we know it.
 
Yes, I wish there was a way to find out more about the provenance. These rifles weren't serial numbered (so it's a ghost gun, high-capacity assault rifle!), so I can't do much with tracking it down that way. The prior ownership oral history is a dead end as well, unfortunately. Short of finding a note under the foregrip or something, or some lucky find in terms of an account of this practice, I'm not sure I have anything other than what looks like a well-done inlay probably of the period.
 
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