This is an extremely rare piece of American antique firearm history. Less than 150 of these distinctive revolving handguns are believed to have been manufactured in the late 1830s by Springfield, Massachusetts, gunmaker C.B. Allen, and this example is serial number 2! John Webster Cochran first invented a revolving cannon design at the young age of 18 and patented it in 1834 and then demonstrated it in Europe the following year and gained a contract from Sultan Mahmud II of the Ottoman Empire and was appointed "Mast of Cannon" and contracted for a full-size revolving 12-pound cannon which was completed by that September and demonstrated to Mahmud II in February 1836, firing 100 times within 15 minutes. He received a significant reward and returned to the U.S. where he developed this revolving handgun design and received two patents in 1837. C.B. Allen carried out the manufacture of these in rifle and handgun form. There is a small button/lever mounted in the top strap that when pressed allows the seven-shot turret to be rotated by hand. Pulling backwards on the rear sight allows the top strap to be hinged upwards to remove the cylinder. The serial number "2" is marked on the underside of the top strap, top of the turret, inside on the frame at the breech, and on the right side of the frame and barrel at the breech (barrel collar stamped twice). The top strap is marked "COCHRANs/PATENT" and "C.B. ALLEN/SPRINGFIELD/MASS." The German silver grip features scroll engraving at the tops. Serial number 4 is illustrated and described in "The William M. Locke Collection" by Sellers on page 422 and has a similarly engraved German silver grip.

Fine with 40% of the fading original case colors remaining, 30% of the original niter blue remaining on the turret, crisp markings and engraving, aged patina on the extremely fine grip, and generally minor overall wear from age and storage. Mechanically fine. These are extremely rare and are an important part of early American revolving firearms development and came out around the same time as Colt's Paterson revolvers!