Cased Plant .30 Cup Primed Front Loading Pocket Revolver with Accessories

.30 Cup Fire. 3.5" ribbed octagonal barrel. SN: 4536. Blued finish, silver plated brass frame, color casehardened hammer, varnished smooth walnut grips. Single action spur trigger solid frame metallic cartridge revolver with smooth round five-chambered rear loading cylinder. The one-line barrel marking reads MERWIN & BRAY. FIRE-ARMS. CO. N.Y. with the cylinder marked in a single line: PATENTED JULY 12, 1859 JULY 21, 1863. Matching serial numbers throughout, with 4536 found on the butt, on the rear face of the cylinder, on the bottom of the barrel under the arbor pin, on the upper face of the arbor pin and stamped inside both grip panels.

These revolvers were produced by Plant Manufacturing Company based upon patents secured by W.C. Ellis and J.H. White in an attempt to circumvent the Rollin White patent that was controlled by Smith & Wesson on the bored-through cylinder concept. Rather than loading the ammunition from the rear of the cylinder as with a Smith & Wesson revolver, the Plant revolver used special "cup primed" ammunition that was loaded from the front face of the cylinder then extracted using an ejector rod on the right rear of the frame allowing the cartridge to be pushed back out of the front of the cylinder chamber. The guns were initially sold and distributed through Merwin & Bray of New York, and later by Eagle Arms Co. About 20,000 of the pocket revolvers were produced, along with about 8,000 larger .42 caliber "Army" revolvers. Eventually production was ended due to legal action by Smith & Wesson.

This revolver is accompanied by an original period compartmentalized mahogany casing with a soft wood bottom, faded burgundy lining, and pillow. The casing includes a partially complete empty box of .30 cup primed cartridges (that contains only one fired casing) a blued steel cleaning rod, a turnscrew and a key for the case lock.

This lot is located in Cincinnati.