That "hook and scroll" triggerguard was used by many gunmakers in the mid-19th century. There was a famous ad by Hawken & Campbell in the
Missouri Republican in 1856 that offered "Mountain and California Rifles" for sale. Many folks have wondered exactly what those "California rifles" looked like. A few years ago, this S. Hawken rifle turned up on an auction site:
We wonder if this might be an example of the St. Louis-made "California rifles."
This next rifle was made by Wurfflein in Philadelphia for an Army officer headed to California:
This one was actually built
in California by a maker named Bigelow:
This next rifle was made by J.J. Freitas, of Springfield, Illinois, the only Portuguese-American riflemaker I know of from that period. I think it is in Curtis Johnson's collection. Mr. Johnson said it "came from an auction in California." He has generously posted a series of photos on Flickr, right
HERE:
Thompson/Center probably found plenty of original rifles that had triggerguards similar to these, but I'm sure few to none of them were actual Hawkens. However, there was a "Hawken Craze" in progress when T/C developed that rifle, and they probably wanted to capitalize on the name. Maybe they should have called it the "California Rifle." In any event, I think Dimick was probably following a trend rather than setting one when he selected that style of triggerguard.
Best regards,
Notchy Bob