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LOT 3079
Historic James Millar, Rochester, 1st Model “Miller Patent” Pill-Lock Revolving Rifle Identified as James Millar’s Personal Rifle and Passed Down Through the Millar Family with Rare Framed Original Patent Document Signed by President Andrew Jackson and Secretary of State and Future President Martin Van Buren - NSN, 44 cal., 33 inch octagon bbl., brown/casehardened finish, walnut stock. James Millar (Miller) (1800-1849) received the included patent for the design of this early American revolving rifle on June 11, 1829. This is one of the earliest American patents for revolving arms and pre-dates Samuel Colt’s famous 1836 patent by several years. Millar and his brother John Jr. were gunsmiths in Rochester, New York, but James soon moved to Michigan where he worked in the lumber industry rather than as a gunmaker. John remained in New York into the 1850s and then also moved to Michigan. It is unclear whether the Millars produced any of there distinctive revolving rifles themselves or if the exclusively had other gunsmiths in their employ such as Joseph Medbury and William Billinghurst Jr. (1807-1880) manufacture them. Collectors have long associated the design more strongly with Billinghurst, but over a dozen different gunmakers are known to have produced “Miller Patent” revolving rifles. The Millar/Miller marked examples are particularly rare and valuable, and, if any were produced by the Millars themselves, the earliest examples like this one are most likely to have been made by them.
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