Published Robinson Model 1872 Repeating Rifle by Adirondack Firearms Co.

Serial #116, .44 RF, 24 1/2" octagon barrel with a very good bore that has minor pitting and freckling within the grooves.  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 on both sides surrounding the ends of the barrel pin.  Some blue remains on the flip-open loading gate, but the majority of the metal has a mottled gray-brown patina with spots of mild freckling.  The barrel retains traces of the original blue finish, with an overall plum-brown patina on the balance of both the barrel and magazine tube magazine tube.  Gray fading is also present at the muzzle and along the edges of the barrel facets.  Simple period fixed sights are present on the barrel, although the elevation adjustment locking screw is missing from the rear sight.  The walnut buttstock is in very good shape, with only minor handling marks and small blemishes scattered about the old, reapplied varnish finish.  This very rifle is illustrated on page 62 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.