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Samuel Colt is believed to have seen Collier’s revolvers on his 1830-31 voyage to England and India as a sailor on the Corvo and to have been influenced by the design; indeed, the Collier patents and testimony from Collier were part of the 1851 court case brought by Colt against the Massachusetts Arms Co. due to Colt’s patent being considered an improvement on the Collier and Wheeler patents.
The rifle features a seven-shot cylinder with built in flashpans that automatically refill from the primer magazine as the cylinder is rotated. The rifled barrel has a blade front sight and a long sighting flat. The gun is marked with “3” inside the lock mortise, indicating this was
the third of the Wheeler revolvers made. The two pepperbox carbine versions are numbered “1” and “2” in the same location. The cock
has some light engraving. Otherwise, the rifle is unmarked. It has a walnut buttstock with a checkered wrist, oval cheekpiece, and iron buttplate with stepped finial. An iron ramrod with a flared tip is fitted below the barrel.
CONDITION: Fine with mostly smooth gray and brown patina overall and minor wear mainly from age and storage. The stock is also fine and has crisp checkering and general light scratches, dings, and marks you’d expect from an over 200 year old trials rifle. The lock shows some signs of work on the internals but functions fine detached from the rifle but does not properly work with the trigger when installed. The cylinder and other mechanisms appear mechanically fine. This is an incredibly rare and possibly once in a life time opportunity to get your hands on an American Wheeler flintlock revolving rifle, one of four Wheelers known, and the only one in private hands!
Provenance: The Lieutenant Colonel Berkeley Lewis Collection; The Mark Aziz Collection; Property of a Gentleman.
Estimate: 85,000 - 130,000 79