Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a 52 caliber Perry Patent Breech Loading Percussion Pistol. The Perry Patent pistol was an innovative breechloader designed by gunsmith Alonzo Perry in Newark, New Jersey back in the 1850s. Most Perry percussion guns had a tube magazine in the buttstock for faster reloading. But this rare .52 caliber pistol looks to be a custom one-off design with an octagon barrel, lever latch, and target sights. After getting a contract for 200 slick breechloading carbines in 1855, Perry’s company still struggled and closed down shortly after. While his lever-action breech system was ahead of its time, the business just didn’t take off. Few Perry percussion pistols exist today to show off his original designs. Though unsuccessful commercially, Perry pioneered important early breechloading techniques. For collectors, these rare guns represent the forward-thinking spirit of an inventive 1850s gunsmith.
“Only a few hundred of these pistols are estimated to have been manufactured around 1854-1856. This example has no visible markings and is somewhat roughly finished and has variances from the standard automatic primer version suggesting it may have been a prototype. The primer tube and screw from the bottom of the frame are absent.”
Lot 3071: Perry Patent Breech Loading Percussion Pistol – Very Scarce Perry Patent Breech Loading Percussion Pistol. (n.d.-n). Rock Island Auction Company. photograph. Retrieved September 7, 2023, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/77/3071/perry-patent-breech-loading-percussion-pistol.
