Manhattan Fire Arms Bar Hammer Percussion Pepperbox

Manhattan Arms Co. Bar Hammer Percussion Pepperbox, made in Norwich, Connecticut, circa 1856. Manhattan Fire Arms Co. was founded in 1856 specifically to capitalize on the soon to be expiring Colt patents in 1857. Unsurprisingly, the business began production by making its own version of Ethan Allen’s massively successful pepperbox revolver. This strategy worked very well for the company and they began by making high quality and very close copies of both Colts and other popular pistols with expired patents. In fact, Manhattan’s copies of Colts were so close that Colt tried to kill their production with a lawsuit, even though their patent had expired. The frame is lightly engraved. The barrel is marked “CAST STEEL”. The hammer is marked “MANHATTAN MFG. CO. NEW YORK”. The company produced about 2,500 altogether, though in many different variations, including barrel lengths and number of shots. While all of them featured a double action trigger and hammer, most of them also revolved the barrel with a pull of the trigger.