Factory records regarding the production of various arms by Ethan Allen’s Allen & Wheelock company are fragmentary at best, particularly for the guns produced during the Civil War era. Much of the information in print is based upon supposition and examination of extant examples, and from period documents that were not from Allen & Wheelock. As such, legitimate production numbers are only best guesses and estimates and actual dates of model introduction are not clear. Additional research published in Ethan Allen and Allen & Wheelock, Their Guns and Their Legacy by Paul Henry provides the best in depth dive into the world of these intriguing firearms. One of the more interesting things that Henry notes is that the firm was not afraid to have guns on the market that featured new designs that had not yet received patent protection.

Allen & Wheelock had entered the conventional percussion revolver market in the late 1850s, with their Side Hammer percussion revolver series. This was the first time that Allen had produced a conventional single action revolving repeating handgun that was not based on the pepperbox concept. Only their transitional Bar Hammer revolvers had resembled a “conventional” revolving handgun, and those were for all intents and purposes a double action bar hammer pepperbox frame and action mated with a single barrel. The two primary patents related to the Side Hammer revolvers were #16,367 which was received on January 13, 1857, and #18,836 dated December 15, 1857. These patents covered a number of unique innovations and improvements to revolving handgun designs. The first patent covers the distinctive Allen & Wheelock combination triggerguard and pivoting ratchet type loading lever. This loading lever would see use on both the Side Hammer and Center Hammer percussion revolvers and as an ejector mechanism for the Center Hammer Lip Fire revolvers as well. The second patent related to the rotational disc at the rear of the cylinder which was the part that actually engaged the hand during rotation and communicated the motion to the cylinder itself via pin that connected the rear face of the cylinder to the rotating disc. This would be an important part of the Side Hammer revolver design but by the time the Center Hammer percussion revolvers were being produced, a more conventional ratchet was being used on the rear of the cylinder with the separate rotating plate being eliminated from the design. The final patent referenced in the Side Hammer design was #21,400 which was issued on September 7, 1858, and covered improvements to the cylinder arbor pin to reduced fouling that could lock up the action. It is not clear when exactly the Side Hammer revolvers were put into production, but the fact that Allen regularly incorporated features and designs into production models prior to receiving patent approval suggests that these guns may well have been in production as early as 1856 or so. 

The Side Hammer Revolvers were moderately successful, but the guns had a somewhat fragile, finicky actions and the long, curved noses of their hammers tended to break easily. Almost simultaneously Allen & Wheelock was introducing small solid frame Side Hammer cartridge revolvers in .22 and .32 rimfire, which used the bored through cylinder design that been patented by Rollin White and which was controlled by Smith & Wesson. As a result, Smith & Wesson brought suit against Allen & Wheelock to stop the production of these cartridge revolvers. Allen would not be deterred, even though the suit was already filed against his company, and after a couple of years of production of Side Hammer revolvers in both percussion and rimfire, Allen was already on the pathway of his next big design, the Center Hammer Lip Fire series of revolvers. These were solid frame, single action revolvers that utilized a new, improved action, a center mounted hammer and fired Allen’s own proprietary Lip Fire metallic cartridge. The larger versions of the guns were produced in .44 and .36 calibers and were almost certainly intended to be attractive to the military as potential combat handguns. It is not clear if Allen felt that the Lip Fire cartridge design which only utilized about a quarter of a rim rather than a full circular rim as in rimfire ammunition, would somehow help him evade the Rollin White patent protection. Due to the backlog of cases before the courts with similar patent infringement cases brought by Smith & Wesson, it would late in 1863 before Allen & Wheelock was actually ordered by the courts to stop producing and selling revolvers with bored through cylinders.

Allen was certainly an intelligent man and would have known that Smith & Wesson would eventually be successful in their lawsuit and end the production of his cartridge revolvers. This was no doubt part of the motivation to introduce the Center Hammer percussion series of revolvers in 1860 or 1861. These guns were essentially percussion versions of the Center Hammer Lip Fire revolvers. Like the Lip Fire revolvers, the large and medium frame guns were produced in .44 and .36 caliber, but with traditional percussion cylinders. Beyond the pending litigation with Smith & Wesson, it appears that another motivation to introduce the percussion guns was the looming American Civil War. The Ordnance Department had proven over the last century to be loath to adopt new firearms technologies until they were somewhat firmly entrenched in the commercial civilian market and were even more hesitant to adopt firearms that utilized any kind of proprietary metallic cartridge technology. In order to make a revolver appealing to the Ordnance Department in 1861, it almost had to be a percussion design. It has long been postulated that the Center Hammer Percussion Revolvers were introduced after Allen lost the lawsuit from Smith & Wesson, but this is not true. The lawsuit would not be finalized until the fall of 1863, with Lip Fire production ending in September of that year. However, the .44 Center Hammer Percussion Revolvers were being sold to the Ordnance Department by retailers like William Read & Sons of Boston by December of 1861. This clearly indicates that Allen was trying to be ready for the increasing military market caused by the American Civil War and also wanted to be able to move forward with marketable products after the loss of the Smith & Wesson lawsuit, which he no doubt expected.

The large frame Allen & Wheelock Center Hammer Percussion Revolvers were produced with two primary action types. The earliest guns used a complicated and fragile “hinged pawl” action. This produced a smooth action but was expensive and time consuming to produce and difficult to repair. These guns also had the hammer suspended on the screw that secured the side plate and entered through the right side of the frame. This made disassembly very difficult. The later production  revolvers used a pin that was cast into the right side of the frame to provide a pivot for the hammer to rotate on, with the screw that secured the sideplate entering from the left side of the frame. This made the revolver much easier to disassemble and repair. These later guns also utilize a simplified internal action that was cheaper and easier to produce. This later action was not nearly as smooth as the first type, but was much cheaper and easier to make, and reducing production costs often motivated Allen’s design changes.

The first of the Center Hammer revolvers produced were the .44 caliber “Army” revolvers. These were produced in two variations with the early style action. Initially the guns had cones (nipples) that were screwed into the cylinder from the inside of the chambers, which was a very unconventional feature. The 2^nd variant revolvers retained all the mechanical features and designs of the 1^st variant but had cones (nipples) that were installed in the conventional fashion, from the rear of the cylinder. While these .44 caliber revolvers did not receive any official US Government contracts, 536 were purchased by the Federal government in 1861 from retailers like William Read & Sons. Nearly all those revolvers were subsequently issued to the 2^nd & 3^rd Michigan Volunteer Cavalry regiments. These revolvers were purchased on the open market, not through an Ordnance Department procurement contract. As a result, they were not marked with any US military markings. The small letter sub-inspection marks on the metal and cartouches on the grips are typically only found on the arms acquired via an official Ordnance Department contract. This means that there is often no way to verify whether an Allen & Wheelock Army revolver is a US military acquired gun or not, other than the few “serial numbers” that have been found in various surviving records. Only an extremely small number of martially inspected Allen & Wheelock Cetner Hammer Army Revolvers exist, suggesting these may have been samples submitted for consideration for contracts.

The Allen & Wheelock Center Hammer Army Revolver was a .44 caliber, six-shot, percussion single action revolver that had a 7 ½” octagon to round barrel that utilized a Allen’s patented ratcheting loading lever that formed the triggerguard of the revolver. The frames, cylinders and barrels of the revolvers were blued with the hammers and the combination loading lever and triggerguards color casehardened. The grips were smooth two-piece walnut that were usually varnished but appear to have been oil finished on some extant examples. Normally the guns are marked in two lines, on the left octagonal barrel flat and read “ALLEN & WHEELOCK . WORCHESTER, MASS. U.S.” over“ALLEN’S PT’S . JAN . 13 . DEC . 15 . 1857 . SEPT. 7, 1858.” In typical Allen & Wheelock cost cutting fashion the markings are usually from a die that is too big to fit in the space provided, leaving some of the markings missing. Interestingly none of the patent dates referenced in the mark actually refer to any design features found in the Center Hammer revolver design. In fact, the early “hinged pawl” would not even receive patent protection until later in 1861, with some of the salient design features not being patented until October of that year, well after the guns were in production.

With the Army sized Center Hammer Percussion Revolvers only meeting with limited success and no actual military contracts, Allen decided to offer a smaller .36 caliber version of the handgun as well, which was likely intended for the civilian more than the military market. While the large frame Army revolvers were only offered with a 7 ½” octagon to round barrel, the new .36 caliber Center Hammer “Navy” Revolver had a smaller “medium” sized frame with an octagonal barrel and was available in 5”, 6” and 7 ½” barrel lengths. Like the larger Army revolver, the Navy was produced with a six-chambered unfluted cylinder, blued finish, color casehardened hammer and loading lever/triggerguard combination, brass front sight and varnished smooth walnut grips. Like the Army model these guns were assembly or batch numbered and were not serial numbered per se. Like the Army production estimates are only educated guesses, but most sources place production of the Center Hammer Navy Revolver at around 500 pieces and this may well be accurate. They do not appear on the market with anywhere near the frequency of the Army sized version and the rarity of the early “hinged pawl” action version suggests that most of the guns were produced after November of 1863 when production transitioned from the early action to the later, easier and cheaper to produce action. Like the Army sized revolvers, no military contracts were received for the Navy revolvers, but some were likely acquired on the open market in small numbers. 

The Allen & Wheelock Center Hammer Navy revolver offered here is in about FINE condition. It is a one of the early production, revolvers with the complicated lockwork and the hammer suspended from the side plate screw, which enters from the right side of the frame. However, it has conventional cones (nipples) that are installed from the rear face of the cylinder, rather than the ones installed from inside the chambers. The revolver has the mid-length 6” barrel and an overall length of about 11”. The revolver is serial (or assembly) numbered 236. This three-digit number appears on the expected parts of the gun. The number is found stamped in the usual location on the frame under the left grip, on the rear face of the cylinder, on the inner face of the loading lever, on the top of the cylinder arbor pin and on the interior of both grips. It also appears in a less common location, on the lower left angled flat of the barrel, just in front of the frame.

The gun appears to be 100% complete, correct and period. Even the original, uniquely shaped brass blade front sight is in place, dovetailed into the top of the barrel near the muzzle. The gun retains some of its original blued finish, probably about 25% or so overall. It is very hard to find any Allen & Wheelock Army revolver with any of the original finish intact, as the guns tended to flake very badly. That means that when one is found with some finish on it, it tends to be somewhat mottled like this one, being a mixture of blued finish and exposed metal. This revolver retains the large majority of the original bright blue in scattered patches on the barrel, as well as in some protected areas around the frame, particularly the lower left side. The cylinder retains some thinned traces of faded blue as well and has a brownish blue tending towards plum appearance over most of its surfaces. The gun remains extremely crisp throughout with sharp lines and edges. The metal of the gun is nearly entirely smooth, with some scattered freckles of lightly oxidized surface roughness here and there and some minor areas of pinpricking. There is some moderate pinpricking and erosion on the rear face of the cylinder and in the cone recesses of the cylinder. These areas would be exposed to erosive gasses whenever the revolver was fired. The areas of metal where the finish has flaked have developed a mottled smoky gray patina with some areas of lightly oxidized plum patina, as well as some bluish toning to the metal. Since the flaking was irregular, particularly on the barrel and frame, it shows a somewhat mottled appearance combining areas of pewter gray, darker oxidized gray, areas of brownish oxidation, traces of blue and bluish toning from the fading and worn finish. The color casehardened hammer retains most of its deep, dark mottled colors. The combination loading lever and triggerguard retains some nice traces of brigth mottling on its interior surfaces where it was protected, with much of the exterior finish having faded to a silvery gray with some traces of weaker and dulling mottled colors here and there. The case coloring on Allen parts was not nearly as vivid and colorful as that found on Colt and Winchester products but tended to be somewhat more muted. The bore of the revolver rates about FINE as well and is mostly bright, with strong rifling. The bore shows some scattered pinpricking and oxidation along its length and shows some moderate frosting in the grooves. The left barrel flat of the revolver is roll marked in two lines:

ALLEN & WHEELOCK . WORCHESTER, MASS. U.S.

ALLEN’S PT’S . JAN . 13 . DEC . 15 . 1857 . SEPT. 7. 1858

The entire marking is present because the full octagon barrel provides plenty of flat surface for the roll mark. On the Army sized guns, the octagonal section of the barrel is much shorter and often results in the beginning, the end or even both parts of the marking missing since the roll mark was slightly longer than the available space. Allen & Wheelock markings are notoriously light, but in this case the markings are relatively crisp and bold, so they remain fully legible, which is uncommon on these guns.

The pistol functions correctly and remains extremely crisp mechanically. The revolver times, indexes, and locks exactly up as it should. The loading lever functions correctly and smoothly and operates exactly as it should. All of the six cones (nipples) are original, and they are in very good, crisp, and usable condition. The walnut grips rate about FINEoverall. The grips retain the large majority of their factory varnish, probably around 85%+. The grips do show some light wear and use, with some lightly scattered surface dings and mars from handling and use and some more moderate marks on the bottom of the right grip panel. Overall, the condition of the grips matches the balance of the gun very well and they remain quite crisp.

Overall, this is an extremely nice example of an early production Allen & Wheelock Center Hammer Navypercussion revolver. The gun remains in very crisp, complete condition, and displays well with some nice original finish. These medium sized Center Hammer revolvers were made in much smaller quantities than their larger Amry sized brethren and this is proven by their rarity on the antique revolver market. Over the last three decades I have had at least sixteen Center Hammer Percussion Revolvers to offer for sale, but only the fifth Center Hammer Navy I have had the opportunity to offer. This coincides with my personal belief that about three times as many Army sized revolvers were produced than most references suggest, but that the Navy sized production was probably around 500 to 750 guns. This is a really attractive and very crisp example of a scarce Civil War era handgun that was likely produced between late 1861 and late 1863, as it incorporates the early style action that was changed in November of 1863. This would be a really wonderful addition to any advanced collection of secondary martial revolvers and will certainly be a fine addition to your American percussion revolver collection.