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 a VERY FINE condition example of an Allen & Thurber Pepperbox. The gun is a classic Allen’s patent pepperbox, based upon his 1845 patent, which represented a significant improvement over his 1837 patent mechanism. The 1845 patent simplified and improved the functionality and ease of production of the pepperbox’s internal mechanism. The right side of the bar hammer is marked in reference to these patented improvements in two lines, 

ALLEN’S PATENT

1845

The barrel is marked inside one of the flutes in a single long line with two separate stamps, 

ALLEN & THURBER    WORCESTER

The barrel marking allows us to date the production of the gun to somewhere between late 1847, after the company had moved to Worcester, MA, and about 1854, when the company became Allen, Thurber & Co. As such, this pepperbox was manufactured at the height of popularity for this sort of gun. The basic design of the double action, bar hammer pepperbox had reached its pinnacle by the mid-1850s but was being rapidly supplanted by the much more reliable and advanced Colt percussion revolvers like the Model 1849 Pocket Revolver. The gun is a 6-barrel pepperbox that is nominally .32 caliber with a 4” barrel cluster and was sometimes referred to as the Standard Light Fluted 6 Model. The barrels are fully fluted without ribs and were the final incarnation of the various Allen barrel cluster designs that has previously featured mostly ribbed barrels. The fully fluted barrels were introduced after the firm moved to Worcester and only the very latest of the Allen & Thurber marked gun featured the fully fluted barrel cluster. These barrels are standard on all subsequent Allen, Thurber & Company and Allen & Wheelock pepperboxes. The flash guard is removable and is hand engraved with light floral splays and the frame is similarly hand engraved with 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 209, 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 7 ½” in overall length and weighs about one and a half pounds unloaded, which is a fairly substantial amount of weight to carry in a pocket. The gun retains about 60%+ 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 80%+ thinning and fading blue, with some scattered flecks of light oxidation and minor surface roughness scattered within the blue. The barrels are free of pitting, but a couple of small areas of minor surface roughness and pinpricking are present, especially near the muzzles, probably from resting in the cloth of the case over time. The frame retains some 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. The original cones (nipples) are all in place in the barrel cluster and show light wear from firing. 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 bores of the barrel cluster remain in about very good condition and show only moderate oxidation and some lightly scattered pinpricking along their length and otherwise remain crisp and smooth. 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 very good+ to near fine condition. They remain fairly crisp and sharp and retain about 80%+ of their original varnished finish, with only some very light surface edge wear and some minor handling marks and dings. The grips are solid and complete and free of any breaks, cracks or repairs.

Overall, this is a really nice condition and very attractive example of mid-19^th century Allen & Thurber Pepperbox that was made during the first major western expansion period that centered around the 1849 California Gold Rush. The pistol dates to circa 1848-1854 and for a gun that is about 175 years old is really in wonderful condition. This would be great addition to any pepperbox collection, to a collection of Ethan Allen firearms or to a collection of western expansion and Gold Rush era guns. Crisp examples like this with this much 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