Bacon Arms Company Bacon Civil War Pocket Revolver .31 Revolver

The Bacon Arms Company was established by Thomas K Baker (1813-1873) in 1859. Baker was a machinist. Bacon manufactured parts at first for another well-known gun maker, Ethan Allen, before establishing his first company between 1847 and 1850. The production was small and total employees never exceeded about fifteen, and it failed around 1856. In 1859 the second company was born, Bacon Manufacturing Company. Before forming this company Bacon had been employed by Manhattan Firearms Company, and they promptly sued him for doing so, but the suit was dropped.

Bacon manufactured until 1863 when he was forced out of the company by a major shareholder and the company continued manufacturing under the Bacon title until 1868 and eventually evolved into the famous Hopkins and Allen Company.

This particular revolver is a good example of Bacon's second model that can be differentiated from the first model by the semi fluted cylinder. It also has similarities to the well-made Manhattan revolver insofar as it has a removable side plate for cleaning and maintenance and very similar engraving on the side frame. Manhattan employed patented safety stops which Bacon did not use and the latch holding the rammer in place was a Bacon innovation. These revolvers were made in 31 calibre only and it is estimated that around 3000 were manufactured but only 1500 retailed and marked by Bacon, the balance being sold by other manufacturers. The serial number of this revolver is number 750 so manufactured early enough to have seen Civil War use. This example is mechanically perfect with strong springs and excellent indexing and '4 click' lock up with a 4" barrel.

This is an interesting and quality built Civil War revolver that is quite scarce to find in this condition.