Engraved Robinson Model 1872 Repeating Rifle by Adirondack Firearms Co.

Serial #250, .44 RF, 26" octagon barrel with a good bore that has some dark 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 mottled ochre patina throughout, with small impact marks on either side of the frame around the ends of the barrel pin.  The frame has New York style floral scrollwork with punch-dot backgrounds along the sides, top, and underside of the frame, as well as on the wrist tangs.  The bolt, rear link, and flip-open loading gate have a mottled gray and plum-brown patina throughout, with areas of pitting along the top on the top of the bolt and toggle link, as well as the finger tab on the loading gate.  The action is functional, however the bolt sometimes binds on the cartridge lifter when closing.  The barrel has an overall plum-brown patina that exhibits gray fading at the muzzle and along the edges of the barrel facets, while the magazine tube retains more of the original blue, with some mild fading and plum-brown freckling on the balance.  The barrel is equipped with a period German silver front sight mated to a V-notch rear sight, screw-adjustable for elevation.  The walnut buttstock has some minor handling marks and small surface bruises scattered about the original oil finish, as well as some minor flattening of the points of the checkered wrist.  This is a good-very good example of a nicely embellished Robinson rifle, and would make a great 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.