Published Robinson 1st Model Repeating Rifle by Adirondack Firearms Co. (Model 1870)

Serial #6, .38 RF, 28" octagon barrel with a very good bore that has minor pitting and freckling along its length.  This well-made rifle was built on Orville Robinson’s May 24, 1870, patent.  The action utilizes a manually-operated bolt that rides within a rectangular mortise that opens at the rear of the receiver.  The bolt is manually retracted by the firer via knurled "ears" that project rearward and flank the centrally-hung hammer.  The hammer itself is functional, however the tip of the spur was broken off at some point in the past.  The brass frame has an overall dull yellow-ochre patina with a series of small impact marks on the forward portion of the left side surrounding the end of the barrel pin.  The barrel retains 30-40% of the original blue finish, with silvering at the muzzle, along the edges of the facets, as well as a mottled dark plum-brown patina on the balance and on the magazine tube.  Simple period fixed sights are present on the barrel.  The walnut buttstock is in very good shape, with minor handling marks and small blemishes scattered throughout the old, reapplied varnish.  The stock is slightly loose, and does have a hairline with-the-grain crack on the belly running back a short distance from the tip of the lower wrist tang.  This very rifle is illustrated on pages 60 and 61 of "The New York State Firearms Trade Volume 1" by H.J. Swinney and Tom Rowe [2003].  This is an exceptionally rare and documented rifle, and is in very good plus condition overall.  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.