GUN FALL 2015
The live portion of this session begins on Monday, October 5, 2015.
UNMARKED CURLY MAPLE PERCUSSION KENTUCKY PISTOL MADE BY JOHN BERINGER, PHILIADELPHIA.JOHN BERINGERKENTUCKY PISTOLNSN.40Cal. .40. Overall length 13", 7-1/4" oct to rnd rifled unmarked bbl with 2" bbl tang. Very nicely figured curly maple stock with an unmarked back action percussion lock and brass sideplate matching the shape of the back action lock plate. The pistol has a 1" brass nosecap, two brass ramrod ferrules and a brass trigger guard. This pistol comes with a paper that was rolled up in the bbl, signed by Robert Beringer in May, 1941, which states the pistol was made by his great grandfather John Beringer who was a gun maker in Philadelphia and that the pistol was handed down in his family ever since. John Beringer is listed circa 1861 as a gunsmith. In the book The Deringer In America by Eberhart, it is noted "Makers attempted to pass off their work as the real thing by using similar marks, such as BERINGER or DEERRINGER." This cataloger seems to remember reading that a firm in Philadelphia hired a man named Beringer so they could legally use that name on Deringer style pistols. CONDITION: Solid, clean and orig throughout. 49254-45 RGG (5,000-8,000)