Extremely Nice Early Production Robinson Model 1872 Repeating Rifle by Adirondack Firearms Co.

Serial #27, .44 RF, 24 3/4" octagon barrel with an excellent, bright bore.  This is a plain, but handsome rifle, built on Orville Robinson’s April 23, 1872, patent, and utilizes a manually-operated toggle lock that rides in a mortise along the top of the receiver operated via a knurled handle on the right side.  The brass frame has an overall dull yellow-ochre patina with a series of small impact marks on the forward portion of the both sides of the frame surrounding the ends of the barrel pin.  The bolt and early, spring steel, Winchester style, push in loading gate cover have retained a good portion of their original bright fire blue, with the balance aged to a mellow blue-brown patina.  The rear toggle link and hammer retain a commensurate amount of muted original color case-hardening, with freckled gray on the balance.  The barrel and magazine tube have about 85-90% of the original blue remaining, with thin silvering at the muzzle and along the edges of the barrel facets.  A period sporting bead front sight blade and elevation-adjustable rear sight are installed, as is an original folding aperture rear sight on the top wrist tang.  The walnut buttstock is also in excellent shape, with only minor handling marks and small blemishes scattered about the original varnish.  This is quite possibly the highest condition original Robinson Model 1872 repeating rifle in existence, and would make a fantastic addition to any collection.   Antique

Orville Moses Robinson was an upstate New York gunsmith and inventor who received three US patents for breech-loading and repeating firearms.  In 1870 Robinson, in partnership with A.S. Babbitt and two others, formed the Adirondack Firearms Co. to manufacture rifles based on his patents at their manufactory in Plattsburgh, NY.  The firm is known to have employed Daniel Wilkinson (possibly J.D. Wilkinson, another upstate New York gunmaker and inventor) and Robinson’s son, William (who would’ve been about 10 years old at the formation of the company!)  Adirondack Firearms Co. operated until 1874, ultimately producing what is thought to be slightly fewer than 1,000 rifles of all types, when it was purchased by the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. and permanently shut down.  The Adirondack Firearms Co., and Robinson’s repeating rifle designs, represent an interesting footnote in the then rapidly advancing field of repeating breechloading long guns.