Description
This antebellum pre-Civil War era percussion revolver was found in the attic of a New Hampshire estate, totally untouched or unmolested for decades. It is a very smooth brown patina overall and all markings are clear and well-struck. The trigger functions properly but the barrel is sluggish to rotate—likely needs a good cleaning and oiling. It is marked New York 1854 on the bar hammer left side and W.W. Marston on the top. The barrel is marked Marston and Knox New York on a raised flute.
The pepperbox revolver was a concept gun produced in heavy numbers by a variety of makers in the early to late 1850s as the cylinder is the barrel—so you can’t blow your fingers off as with a percussion cylinder revolver which was subject to cylinder cross firing. These pistols were very popular North and South prior to the Civil War and many were carried into the fields of battle by individual soldiers.
