Frankenau's Patent "Purse Pistol" - SOLD

The Frankenau Combination Pocket Book and Revolver, Patented US Nov 6, 1877, and in Britain Sept 5, 1877 Purse Pistol. The patents refer to this item as a "revolver purse". According to Lewis Winant, the author of Firearms Curiosa, "This unusual leather-covered fabrication has a sheet-metal center frame which divides it into two sections", (one section being a purse and the other section holding a revolver). "The revolver section need be opened only for loading or unloading. It is not opened when the gun is fired. At one end of the frame is a pivoted gate to cover the barrel muzzle, and at the bottom is a well concealed folding trigger. To fire the gun it is only necessary to snap the trigger free and pull it. At the very beginning of the trigger pull, an ingenious contrivance swings the pivoted gate or muzzle cover out of the way. The closed purse revolver is about 4 inches by 2 1/2 inches by 1 1/4 inches." The caliber is 5 mm pinfire, serial number 662. The detachable ejector rod is missing, but the delicate and complex mechanism functions, for the most part, as designed but with a hesitation in the trigger return spring.

980-64/RS-COMM