Henry Harrington (1796-1876) of Southbridge, Massachusetts, patented his "volley gun" design in 1837 and intended to manufacture or license the production of long guns, handguns, and cannons based on his design. He is actually best remembered outside of gun collecting as a manufacturer of cutlery. In fact, his company, founded in 1818, is credited as the first U.S. cutlery manufacturer and remains the largest manufacturer of cutlery within the country today. He produced a limited number of long guns and handguns of various patterns based on this "volley" design, including some with an incredible number of individual chambers. All of these firearms are incredibly rare and desirable, and most are fairly unique given the variety of calibers, single versus double hammer varieties, barrel lengths, different materials, etc. Norm Flayderman indicated a three-shot was the norm, if a norm could really be established among the extant examples. We sold a cased pistol version in December 2020 for $34,500 demonstrating how desirable these volley guns are among serious antique arms collectors. Reloading on this single hammer, seven-shot example is fairly easy. You slide the lever ahead of the trigger guard to the right, pull the hammer back, and lift the breechblock out. Then, you place another loaded breechblock in its place and slide the lever to the left to lock it in place. There is no half-cock, so the hammer is either going to be left resting on a live cap if the gun is primed or left with the hammer back over a live cap. This would certainly be rather risky. Reloading the breechblocks involves first seating the seven individual bullets in their respective chambers and then filling the powder chamber from the rear. The back of the breechblock has a screw-on cover that can be removed. Unscrewing the cover reveals the shared powder chamber that propels all of the bullets. This breech end of the barrel group has a decorative German silver wrap with various band, and the bulk of the barrel group is wrapped with blackened cord and then a set of iron bands at the muzzle. The frame has "HENRY HARRINGTONS/PATENT./1837/SOUTHBRIDGE/MASS" on the left side. The gun is fitted with a figured buttstock and shotgun buttplate.

Fine. The barrel shows some minor fading but retains most of the black finish on the cord. There are dents on some of the barrels at the muzzle and brown patina on the muzzle bands. The German silver at the breech have attractive lightly aged patina. The brass breechblock has attractive aged patina, and the frame and furniture have dark brown patina and some mild oxidation. The refinished stock has a repair in the wrist and is otherwise fine and displays attractive figure, numerous light scratches and dings, and minor edge wear. Mechanically excellent. This is an exceptionally rare American volley gun. We very rarely get to offer a Henry Harrington volley gun of any type, let alone a very solid seven-shot long gun.