Mystery object - well - fairly mystery object. Please guess :- Where was this object made? when was it made and the usual name for it.
I've spent most of today tidying up the case and restoring the innards (technical term) of the case. It's an attractive little object - well I find it so. For a real bonus point, what did Mark Twain say of the American built equivalent ? and why?
Good guessing.
8 comments:
In Mark Twain's "Roughing It" he wrote:- "George Bemis was our fellow-traveler. We had never seen him before. He wore in his belt an old original "Allen" revolver, such as irreverent people called a "pepper-box."
I believe this is the device to which you refer in your blog. He goes on to denigrate its accuracy and deplore its frequent discharge of all cylinders which he attributes to loose fitting percussion caps.
It's a Pepper-Box. I think people have been a-salted with those by well seasoned footpads.
You can have that answer with my condiments Mike.
Quite right Crowbard. I'll come back to that in a while (when everyone has had their go).
Hello Rog. A pun my word you really are mustard as far as elderly jokes are concerned.
I think the original Allen revolver had seven barrels although the later Allen & Thurber Pepper-box Revolvers offered a choice of four, six or eight barrels rather than the five shown in your photo.
http://journalofantiques.com/2015/features/the-iconic-pepperbox-revolving-pistol/
Hello all. I think that Crowbard and Roger (between them) have got the answers. It is a revolving pistol, usually known as a 'pepper box'. I think this refers to its habit (when carelessly loaded) of firing several barrels at once. If the pistol is carefully loaded , with correct size percussion caps, and then the percussion nipples and the breech area generally are brushed clean of all grains of gunpowder, there is rarely any problem. I do, though, remember the first time I fired one of these, in about 1960, on the first trigger pull there was a crashing, slightly ragged explosion, then a couple of clicks, then another explosion. I think three (or four) barrels had gone off at once, then the hammer had clocked on the empty barrels, then the last barrel (or two) had gone off. I then read up on the pistols habits, loaded far more carefully, and never had further problems.
The pistol shown is an English pistol by Jas. Harper. It was made around 1840, and is in reasonably crisp condition.
Mark Twain says of the American pistol- the Allen- that it is 'a good pistol, but comprehensive'.
P.s. The hammer had 'clicked' not 'clocked' on the empty barrels.
P.P.s. These pistols are made for fairly close quarter work. The barrels are smooth bored and of two and a half inch length (from nipple to muzzle).
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