Six-Barreled Pepperbox Disk Primer Pistol with Case and Accessories
Gunsmith Joseph Rock Cooper British
Not on view
This type of pistol is commonly called a pepperbox, its defining feature being a rotatable cluster of full-length barrels. They were produced in large numbers in England in the 1830s-50s and were the first English revolvers to utilize percussion ignition system, though early examples of the English pepperbox date to the early 1800s and employed flintlocks. They commonly feature six or seven barrels machine bored from a single piece of steel, and a box-lock with a bar hammer at the top of the frame. This example is self-cocking, each pull of the trigger raising the releasing the hammer and rotating the barrel cluster. It utilizes a disk primer mechanism, instead of the more common percussion caps that fitted over a protruding nipple. It features a folding trigger, silver primer shield, and a blued frame and barrels, now faded, the frame and shield engraved with scrollwork.
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