The various firms owned and operated by gun maker Ethan Allen eventually resulted in a true powerhouse of American arms manufacturing during the middle of the 19^th century, Allen & Wheelock. Unlike the major American arms producers of the era like Colt and Remington, Allen’s companies concentrated upon manufacturing arms for civilian sale rather than focusing on trying to obtain government military contracts. 

The company was founded in 1831 when Ethan Allen started to make cutlery in Milford, MA. Allen’s primary line was the knives and tools needed for cobblers. Allen then moved his small facility to North Grafton, MA where he added a cane gun to his line of shoemaker’s tools. In 1836 Allen introduced his “Pocket Rifle”, a single action, under hammer, long-barreled rifled pistol in .31 caliber. With the initial success of this product, Allen pursued the design and patent of a double action pocket pistol, and eventually the pepperboxes that would be his mainstay product line for the next 20 years. In 1837 he brought his brother-in-law Charles Thurber into the business, creating Allen & Thurber, and in 1842 the company moved to Norwich, CT, where it would remain until 1847. In 1847, the firm moved to Worcester, MA, where it would remain until it went out of business in 1871. 

In 1854 Thomas Wheelock, another of Allen’s brother’s-in-law joined the company, and it was rebranded as Allen, Thurber & Company. In 1856 Charles Thurber retired, and the company known as Allen & Wheelock came into existence. In 1865, after Wheelock’s death the previous year, the company was renamed for the last time as E. Allen & Company. The new company included more of Allen’s extended family, including his son’s-in-law Sullivan Forehand and Henry Wadsworth. After Allen’s death in 1871, the 34-year-old company would change names again, this time to Forehand & Wadsworth, and the Allen name would be left to history. 

During that 34-year history, the company produced thousands of firearms ranging from single shot percussion pocket pistols and multi-barrel percussion pepperboxes to rather innovative and complicated large frame percussion revolvers and even some of the first truly successful self-contained cartridge revolvers. The development of Allen’s “Lip Fire” self-contained cartridge was truly revolutionary, especially because the rimfire cartridges of the era that were offered in the Smith & Wesson Model No1 and No2 revolvers were only .22 and .32 respectively, while Allen offered self-contained handgun cartridges in the much larger calibers of .36 and .44, which were also much more powerful loadings. Unfortunately, Allen’s production of his Lip Fire and Rim Fire series of revolvers was brought to a screeching halt due to litigation from Smith & Wesson, who were defending the bored through cylinder patent of Rollin White, which they had purchased exclusive rights to. He managed to produce his sidehammer rimfire revolvers for about three years, from 1859 to 1862, before the patent infringement suit shut down the production of that product line as well. His revolutionary Lip Fire revolvers saw a much shorter production life, with the guns being patented in 1860 and being out of production by mid-1862. Despite these setbacks Allen persevered, continuing to manufacture percussion revolvers, and long arms, including a drop-breech cartridge rifle and double-barreled shotguns with metal wrists. Allen also produced a successful line of single shot, cartridge derringers that did not infringe upon the Rollin White patent. Allen’s innovations in revolver actions, and self-contained cartridge designs earned him numerous patents. His use of large-scale production techniques and interchangeable parts also made him a leader within his industry. While certainly not as famous as Samuel Colt, Eliphalet Remington or Oliver Winchester, the contributions of Ethan Allen to the American firearms industry were important and long lasting, and his high-quality arms offer a worthy and wide array of collecting possibilities.

Offered here is an about FINE condition example of an Allen & Thurber Norwich Ring Trigger Pepperbox. The gun is a classic Allen’s patent pepperbox, based upon his original 1837 patent mechanism. The right side of the bar hammer is marked in two lines, 

ALLEN & THURBER PATENT

NORWICH C-T

The barrel is marked on one of the ribs in a single long line with three separate stamps, 

PATENTED    1837        CAST STEEL

The marking allows us to date the production of the gun to somewhere between 1842 and mid-1847, after the company had moved to Norwich, CT but before they relocated to Worcester, MA. As such, this pepperbox was manufactured as the popularity for this sort of gun was rising and before the introduction of mass-produced percussion revolvers like the Colt Model 1849 Pocket Revolver. The design is a double action, ring trigger, bar hammer pepperbox and in many ways was at the pinnacle of repeating handgun technology for the time. The gun is a 6-barrel pepperbox that is nominally .30 caliber with a 3.5” barrel cluster. The barrels are ribbed, a feature that disappeared with later Allen pepperboxes, as the design eventually evolved to fluted barrels after the firm moved to Worchester. The flash guard is removable and is etched with light foliate motifs. The frame is hand engraved with flowing floral patterns. The backstrap is engraved with light, decorative boarder designs. As the popularity of the pepperbox began to wane, Allen eliminated the engraved embellishments to reduce cost and try to remain competitive with the new conventional percussion revolver designs that were beginning to dominate the market. The gun is assembly numbered 59, and this matching number is found on the barrel cluster between two of the nipple recesses, on the inside of the triggerguard, inside the frame on the left side under the grips, on the left edge of the mainspring and stamped into the inside of each of the grip panels. The pepperbox measures about 6 ¾” in overall length and weighs a little more than a pound unloaded, which is a fairly substantial amount of weight to carry in a pocket. The gun retains about 20%+ of its original dulling and fading blued finish, which is uncommon for Allen handguns, as the fragile blued finish was prone to flaking. The barrel cluster retains about 40%+ thinning and fading blue, with moderate amounts of lightly scattered oxidation and flecks of surface roughness scattered within the blue. The barrels are free of any real pitting, but some small areas of minor surface roughness and pinpricking are present, especially near the muzzles. The barrels also show some scattered dings and minor impact marks from carry and use. The frame retains some minute traces of blue on the recoil shield with the rest of the frame having a lightly oxidized brownish gray patina that shows freckled oxidation and discoloration. A small amount of pinpricking is scattered on the frame, but it is quite minor. Some more moderate oxidation and light pitting is present in the cone recesses at the rear of the barrel. The hammer and triggerguard both retain some mottled traces of dulled and muted grayish case coloring with the bar hammer showing some light pinpricking from percussion cap flash. Five of the original cones (nipples) are all in place in the barrel cluster and show light wear from firing, with one cone broken with only the base intact. The cone recesses show moderate surface oxidation and roughness and residue from being fired a few times and then not being adequately cleaned. The 6 smooth bores of the barrel cluster remain in about good to very condition and show moderately heavy oxidation and some scattered pinpricking and light pitting along their length. The pepperbox remains mechanically fine and functions perfectly. The gun times, indexes and locks up exactly as it should. The two-piece, bag shaped walnut grips are in about very good condition. They remain fairly crisp and sharp and retain some of their original varnished finish, with moderate amounts of edge wear and finish loss. The grip has the steeper grip angle of the earlier Grafton production guns, which remained in use through the Norwich production period. It also has the oval German silver inserts, known as “spangles”, that are associated with the Grafton and Norwich production periods. The grips show some scattered handling marks and dings, with a small chip missing from the upper portion of the left grip, just below the frame junction. The grips are solid and complete and free of any breaks, cracks or repairs.

Overall, this is a nice condition and very attractive example of an early Allen & Thurber Pepperbox that was almost certainly made prior to the Mexican American War. The pistol dates to circa 1842-1847 and for a gun that is about 185 years old is really in nice shape. This would be great addition to any pepperbox collection, to a collection of Ethan Allen firearms or to a collection of western expansion or Gold Rush era guns. Solid examples like this with some remaining finish don’t show up very often these days and are often priced much higher when they do. This is a lot of gun for the money and one you will certainly be glad to add to your collection.

SOLD