Guns International #: 102896644
Seller's Inventory #: 240376

Category - Derringer Antique - Antique Pistols - Palm Pistols

Category
Derringer Antique
Antique Pistols - Palm Pistols

C. CURRY Agent Marked Antique HENRY DERINGER Percussion .45 POCKET Pistol Infamous POCKET Pistol that Assassinated LINCOLN

Description:
C. CURRY Agent Marked Antique HENRY DERINGER Percussion .45 POCKET Pistol 

Infamous POCKET Pistol that Assassinated LINCOLN

Here we present an antique Henry Deringer Percussion Pocket Pistol, made circa the 1850s in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Though partially illegible, this example is marked “C. CURRY / SAN FRANCO CALA” C. Curry of San Francisco, California, was one of just fifteen authorized agents for Henry Deringer selling his famous pocket pistols. Born in Ireland and operating in Philadelphia from 1837 to 1852, Charles Curry sold arms in San Francisco from 1852 until his death in 1863, becoming the sole West Coast agent for Deringer in 1858, a position he left to his sons, Nathaniel and John.

Henry Deringer was a very successful Pennsylvanian gunsmith who started his own company in his early twenties, circa 1809. It was not until the 1850s that his prototypical “Deringer” percussion pistol became extremely popular. Once it did become popular, the basic design was copied in dozens of different shops. Not only was it copied, but Deringer’s good name was stamped on guns made by others, some of them not up to the quality standards of Deringer himself. The inventor was apparently very worried about protecting his good name, so he pursued and sued any of the counterfeiters that he could find and warned the buying public to beware of his spurious imitators.

The name “Deringer” often invokes certain historical event, characters or moments in film. Deringer’s name has become both a noun and a catch-all term. President Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed with one of Henry Deringer’s pocket sized percussion pistols, the night John Wilkes Booth revenged the South at the Ford Theater. They conjure images of the California Gold Rush, as well as riverboat gamblers. These pistols were very practical for the time, being small and concealable and of large bore size.

The Civil War brought new technology to weapons and when sales of the Deringer pistol declined, Henry turned to the courts to defend his trademark.  Suits were brought against several of the imitators, but it was his successful 1863-70 case against A. J. Plate that set patent infringement history.  A District court awarded Deringer $1,770 in damages and issued a permanent injunction against Plate's use of the Deringer trademark. On appeal the California supreme court upheld the verdict.

Here is what Charles Edwin Chapel had to say about the Deringer pistol:

“For a man in a tight spot, with an armed enemy only a few feet away, a pair of single-shot Deringer pistols was more effective than the multishot pepperbox. You either got your man at the first or second shot—if, indeed, you were given the chance to fire twice—or you got a fast funeral. That heavy-calibered little gun was a man-stopper at short range, an effective surprise weapon, an “equalizer” with which many a gold-camp David permanently tamed the muscle-bulging, belligerent Goliaths of the frontier. Included in a man’s personal arsenal, the pistol was carried either as a principal weapon or as a reserve to be used when revolver, pepperbox or Bowie knife failed.”

The overall condition is good. Strong action. Good bore for its age. A stable crack is present on the left side of the forend near the muzzle. Markings are legible. Sharp engravings. German silver.

Own the original! This is a legitimate antique and not a reproduction.

Barrel is 2-1/2 inches.

Caliber: .41 Percussion

Overall condition as seen in photos.  
      
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ancestryguns

$3200

#240376

 

Price: $3,200.00                     Buy Now

Antique: Yes