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

Serial #7, .44 RF, 24 1/2" octagon barrel with a very good bore that has dark freckling and pitting within the grooves.  This is a 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.  Very nice non-factory New York style engraved scrollwork vignettes with punch-dot accents are present on the forward and rear portions of the frame.  The bolt has a mottled gray and plum-brown patina, while some of the original blue remains on the early spring steel, Winchester style loading gate, with the balance aged to a mellow blue-brown patina.  The rear toggle link and hammer havea mottled patina that matches the bolt.  The barrel and magazine tube have about 40-50% of the original blue remaining, with the balance toned to a mellow plum-brown patina, and thin silvering at the muzzle, as well as along the edges of the barrel facets.  A period bright metal sporting bead front sight blade and period replaced elevation-adjustable rear sight are installed.  The walnut buttstock was expertly refinished to excellent shape, with almost no handling marks or blemishes and only a very slight proudness of the wrist tangs and buttplate edges.  This is an exceptionally handsome Robinson Model 1872, in fine condition, and would make a stellar 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.