Marked On Backstrap: J. C. Terry / Patent Pending
Serial Number 418
Terry made a substantial little 22-caliber rimfire derringer with a 3.75-inch barrel like the Remington Elliott Vest Pocket 22 derringer, but a bit larger and considerably heavier. The hammer serves as breechblock. All specimens found to date display only three-digit serial numbers. So, it is probable that he made less than 700 pistols. They show up very occasionally…they are rarely encountered.
The late John Hamilton, a well-known, and highly respected researcher [museum curator and author] in the firearms and other fields, was going through business and population directories for Springfield, Massachusetts and found in an early 1860’ s directory a reference to J. C. Terry pistol maker. His name was only published for one year; his business was short lived.
J.C. Terry is thought to be Jabez Carlos Terry, who was born in 1813 in Enfield, Connecticut and moved to Springfield at the age of 17, where he was eventually employed at a blacksmith shop. An 1847 Springfield directory lists him as a machinist at Mill Street and the 1858 directory lists him as an armorer on Gardner Street. It is doubtful that Terry continued making guns after 1863, because in that year he became employed by the Newell Brothers Button Factory, for whom he invented button manufacturing machinery that became the industry standard. He retired in 1889 and died in 1901.
Item Date: Early 1860's
Measurement: Overall length: 4.75"; barrel length: 2"
Literature: In the April 2017 issue of Man At Arms magazine, Dick Littlefield published an article titled A Newly Discovered Repeating Version of a Well-Known Single-Shot Derringer! Dick discusses a particular J. C. Terry experimental pistol and shows the standard production single shot model.
Price: $2,400
SKU 308-659
For More Information, Please Contact David Hillier at 978-597-8084 or email drh@aaawt.com.
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