Gooner
Cadet
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2017
- Location
- Goldthorpe UK
you may want to check your pol
Thank you - It has Patent and a serial number on the right side, under the cylinderIt may be a copy of the M1851 Adams with the later Kerr patent loading lever added. If it is a true Adams it will have ADAMS PATENT engraved on the left side of the revolver just below the cylinder and that is followed by an engraved number. Early Adams patent revolvers often have the maker or dealer engraved on the top flat over the cylinder. Unmarked copies may have been made in Belgium. Another identifying mark would be proof marks on the cylinder which -- if made in England -- would identify either Birmingham or London manufacture.
This is an unmarked "pocket size" copy in .33 caliber that I have and it has no proof marks at all.
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What you have is most likely of late 1850's manufacture and indeed REAL. The Adams M1851 was the first true double action revolver where squeezing the trigger cocked and fired the revolver without having to cock the hammer first.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me - I need to decide on my next move regarsing getting it sold ( We can't own weapons in the UK without a licence !! )View attachment 171542 View attachment 171543
Super find! From a car boot sale? WOW!
Without question, you have a bona fide, authentic, 100% original antique Adams revolver, made in the 1850's. I am pretty sure that the loading lever is a latter add on. These early Adams pistols had a separate lever that hooked on a nub ( where the screw is now) that would rotate and push the rammer to set the bullet/powder in the cylinder chamber.
Interestingly, some of William Tranter's first model revolvers used the frames of Adams (Tranter and Adams worked together for a while) that show serial #s in the 20,000 range (see accompanying picture). There is a GREAT article in the current NSTCW magazine (North South Trader Civil War) that shows some of the Tranters going to Southern ports and being engraved by southern retailers prior to and early on in the war. (Check the magazine cover picture. These are considered secondary, Confederate arms.) The largest one on the cover picture is an early Adams frame, like yours, but has the double trigger modification, characteristic of the early Tranter revolvers and not seen on Adams pistols.
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Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me - I need to decide on my next move regarsing getting it sold ( We can't own weapons in the UK without a licence !! )
I'm looking into Uk Antique Licence Laws, and also Antique Dealers - If it's authentic, I will have to let it go I'm afraid !!Which is probably why you found it where you did. Could you approach a collector's club or society to get the skinny on the sale of such ?
I'm guessing that you are not interested in keeping it in your collection, or at least the start of one ?
View attachment 171542 View attachment 171543
Super find! From a car boot sale? WOW!
Without question, you have a bona fide, authentic, 100% original antique Adams revolver, made in the 1850's. I am pretty sure that the loading lever is a latter add on. These early pistols had a separate lever that hooked on a nub ( where the screw is now) that would rotate and push the rammer to set the bullet/powder in the cylinder chamber.
Interestingly, some of William Tranter's first model revolvers used the frames of Adams (Tranter and Adams worked together for a while) that show serial #s in the 20,000 range (see accompanying picture). There is a GREAT article in the current NSTCW magazine (North South Trader Civil War) that shows some of the Tranters going to Southern ports and being engraved by southern retailers prior to and early on in the war. (Check the magazine cover picture. These are considered secondary, Confederate arms.) The largest one on the cover picture is an early Adams frame, like yours, but has the double trigger modification, characteristic of the early Tranter revolvers and not seen on Adams pistols.
Mark A-- VERY sweet Tranter! And using the Adams frame! I have seen a lot of Tranters but your example is the only one engraved that way. COOL!Tranter 2nd model revolver serial number 20417Y. An early Tranter using an Adams frame.
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