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This is a Norwich Falls revolver, Liberty model. It is a nickel plated, seven shot revolver with a 2.5 inch smooth bore barrel. The hard rubber grips have George Washington's head on them. The Sears' catalog of fall 1907 state that the normal Norwich Falls' guarantee can not be given to this firearm, meaning it is not of great quality. From the gents @ thefirearmsforum.com: (QOUTE:These guns as well as guns marked “Norwich Arms Co” and “Norwich Falls” have very similar shapes and were probably made by the same company. They may have been made by the “Hood Firearms Co.” but probably by Bliss and Goodyear. FW Hood controlled the “Norwich Arms Co.”, and it was probably only a name, with no actual factory. But did Hood Firearms Co make anything? Bliss and Goodyear did, but who they contracted to and what names they put on their products remain mysterious and confusing. The number and varietyof the so called “suicide specials” continues to facinate collectors even though the guns themselves are of little value. One of the mysteries is the large number of companies involved, few of which seem to have a real factory or machinery. I suspect the tangle of dummy companies, “name” companies, holding companies, etc. Will never be resolved. UNQOUTE) The Hood Firearm Company (1873 – 1882) was formed by Freeman W Hood. Hood also controlled the Norwich Arms Co and the Norwich Lock Co. He further had interest in the Continental Arms Co and the Bacon Manufacturing Co.His trade names were:Alert, Alexia, Alexis, Boy’s choise, Brutus, Czar, Hard Pan, International, Jewel, Liberty, Little John, Marquis of Lorne, Rob Roy, Robin Hood, Tramps Terror, Turner & Ross, Union Jack, Victoria Wide Awake. Small revolvers have a long tradition in America, dating back to the Smith & Wesson First Model .22 of 1857, which evoked a plethora of cheap pocket revolvers. The small .22 revolvers were followed by larger models in .32, .38, and .41 caliber rimfire versions. Soon after American pocket revolvers began to appear, the Webley Bulldog came on the market (1872/1873). American companies quickly began to imitate the very successful Bulldog with revolvers like the Colt New Line Pocket in 1874. It wasn’t long before the Belgian arms industry took a piece of the action as well. By the 1890’s there were literally hundreds of different pocket revolvers of every imaginable size and caliber on the market. One such was the Marlin Little Joker (1872-1875), another Hopkins and Allen 7-shot .22 solid frame double action revolver, made between 1875 and 1907. The .32 Smith & Wesson Safety Hammerless of 1888 to 1892 with the 2 inch barrel became known as a “Bicycle” gun at some point, and the First Model Ladysmith (the 1902 M Frame Model .22 Hand Ejector), was often referred to as a “Bicycle” gun. Iver Johnson made a similar gun - the Model 1900 Double Action small frame, a 7-shot .22, which appeared in 1900 and remained in production for 41 years. Deringer pistols, Bacon Arms revolvers, Colt cloverleaf and Liberty revolvers were manufactured in America during the nineteenth century. They were exceptionally small pocket pistols in various forms. In a previous era they could be considered as gentleman’s jewellery. This, Norwich Falls revolver, Liberty model is a small, single action revolver with a spur trigger. Nowadays these cheap, small revolvers are derogatorally known as ‘Saterday-night specials/Suicide specials and are currently banned from being improrted into the USA. But 1880 to 1910 dozens of these cheap revolvers were sold for every revolver from a well known brand, so this is the average gun that were in the US households. The trigger mechanism follows the Smith + Wesson design of 1860. The weapon has a solid frame and the cylinder pin can be removed to take the cylinder from the frame and push cases out and to reload. It is classified as an antique in the USA. (ref. ‘Pistols of the world’ by Hogg and Weeks p159, p62, Dictionary of guns and gunmakers p308 by John Walter, http://www.thefirearmsforum.com/threads/can-somebody-please-identify-this-revolver.112568/#post-984079)
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