Junk Drawer Gem or Paperweight?

[Mountain]

Bought this antique cap and ball pepperbox for paperweight money, so it's ok if a paperweight is all it can be. It's missing a latch spring and the pivot screw is a Bubba job, but otherwise it's intact and functional.

Made in Vermont, so possibly there's some local expertise on it?

 

[Palladin]

Nice

 

[tinhorn]

That's cooler than hell! I'd open carry that.

 

[38ExtraSpecial]

My father had a single shot 14 gauge made by WM Lawrence that was NH or VT. I wonder if there’s some connection.

 

[Arto]

Here's where it was made: APM
in the old Robbins & Lawrence Civil War gun factory:
lots of machine tools from all over newengland (like this one from the old GE factory in the 'burg Planer, Metal - #71 | American Precision Museum )
a wicked cool place to visit if you're ever halfway up vermont

the NRA has one too - a good writeup at the bottom here: Robbins & Lawrence Pepperbox Pistol

lotsa info: Robbins & Lawrence Pepperbox
parts labeled & more info: Nouvelle page 0

google some of the auction prices$! Big $$ for some
SCARCE Pre-CIVIL WAR Era ROBBINS & LAWRENCE .31 Cal. Ring Trigger PEPPERBOX Ring Trigger Ties to Tyler Henry and Smith & Wesson

Robbins & Lawrence Pepperbox – J & J Military Antiques – Guns, Swords, Bayonets & Militaria

Robbins & Lawrence Pepperbox (AH4546) - Collector’s Firearms

Five shot pepperbox with 4.5″ barrel and the original box! The pistol has an even brown patina. The trigger still has a small amount of case coloring. The wood grips are very good. The overall condition is very fine. The box is in very good plus condition and has the correct Robbins & Lawrence...

www.collectorsfirearms.com

 

[Picton]

 

[Mountain]

Here's where it was made: APM
in the old Robbins & Lawrence Civil War gun factory:
lots of machine tools from all over newengland (like this one from the old GE factory in the 'burg Planer, Metal - #71 | American Precision Museum )
a wicked cool place to visit if you're ever halfway up vermont

the NRA has one too - a good writeup at the bottom here: Robbins & Lawrence Pepperbox Pistol

lotsa info: Robbins & Lawrence Pepperbox
parts labeled & more info: Nouvelle page 0

google some of the auction prices$! Big $$ for some
SCARCE Pre-CIVIL WAR Era ROBBINS & LAWRENCE .31 Cal. Ring Trigger PEPPERBOX Ring Trigger Ties to Tyler Henry and Smith & Wesson

Robbins & Lawrence Pepperbox – J & J Military Antiques – Guns, Swords, Bayonets & Militaria

Robbins & Lawrence Pepperbox (AH4546) - Collector’s Firearms

Five shot pepperbox with 4.5″ barrel and the original box! The pistol has an even brown patina. The trigger still has a small amount of case coloring. The wood grips are very good. The overall condition is very fine. The box is in very good plus condition and has the correct Robbins & Lawrence...

www.collectorsfirearms.com

Awesome info and links- thanks! Actually the most helpful info was the pics showing that the spring I am missing is a coil spring. That should be much easier to replace than some sort of proprietary leaf spring. Onward to find a spring...

And wow, definitely some big bucks. Mine is in much rougher shape and there's that bubba job on the pivot screw, but I don't think the $10 I spent is a bad deal. I won't be selling it, so it really doesn't matter anyway. Some sort of pepperbox has always been on my bucket list- it was even on my late father's bucket list, and this one fell into my lap.