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Winning Bid US $1000 First bid $1000 Quantity 1 # of bids 0 Time left Auction has ended   Started 2025-07-28 00:00:00 Ended 2025-11-21 22:35:25

Massachusetts Arms Co. (Poultney & Trimble), 1859 Smith carbine, Cal: .50, MFG: 1861-65, S/N: 8443, capping breechloader, 21 1/2'' octagon barrel.

HISTORY: Designed by Gilbert Smith in 1857, he would submit it to military trials in 1857 & 1858 where it was liked but more work on the gun & cartridge was needed. Smith would refine the design into the 1859 model where it was demonstrated to the secretary of war John Floyd & he would remark that it was amongst the best of the breech loaders he's seem. Lt. Col. Joseph E. Johnston of the 1st US Cavalry carried one of the 1859 Smith carbines for 6 months on the frontier in Kansas. He would write to Washington about great the rifle was with the ease of reloading, & resistance to powder fowling & recommended it for adoption. Before 1857 the guns were hand made by Smith, but in 1857 him & Thomas Poultney became associates & Poultney would buy the patent rights from smith in that same year, & would help him built the rifles for trials from 1857-59. In 1859 Poultney formed the firm Poultney & Trimble with David Trimble where they became the exclusive agents for marketing all Gilbert Smith Patent firearms & would arrange for their manufacture. On February 9th 1860 the Army ordered 300 Carbines for more field trails with cavalry. Eight days before this Government sent out the contract, the War department formed a board of officers to preform more testing on the Smith carbine, & the begun the testing on the 9th when the contract was given out. testing would run until April 20th 1860 & on May 20th the results concluded that the rifles were fit for military service. The governors of Alabama & South Carolina would buy hundreds of Smith carbine in 1860 to arm their state Milita cavalry in response to the 1860 presidential election with Lincoin being elected. The Poultney & Trimble failed to deliver the 300 Carbines the army wanted so Poultney started looking for manufactures that were large enough to make thousands of rifles, they found this with the Massachusetts arms company, however the factory was destroyed by a fire in January of 1861, so when in august of 1861 when Poultney & Trimble received a contract for 10,000 Smith carbines from the government, they had to find another subcontractor until the Massachusetts Arms factory was rebuilt. Parts for the guns were supplied by American Machine Works in Springfield, & delivery of the rifles would start but there was some problems. The delivery was slower than promised, there was problems with the price of the rifles & quality control issues with part breakage. In 1862 the contract was forfeited by the government over these issues, but the government did by the remining completed rifles at a discount. Poultney fought the decision & pleaded for the contact time to be extended to make the remaining 4000 guns, & his request was accepted & he fulfilled the rest of the contact. More orders for smith carbines would come in during the war, but in august of 1863, Massachusetts arms decided to switch more of their factory to production of the Maynard carbine & would sub contract the American Machine Works company to part of their contract for Smith carbines. They would eventually completely switch production away from the smith carbine & in September 1863 all Smith carbine production was given to American Machine works. Sources indicate that American Machine works made 5,000 Smith carbines for Massachusetts arms, & latter obtained a contact for themselves for 12,000 rifles later in 1863. Production would stop in 1865 when the civil war ended with around 30,000 Carbines being made, both for military & commercial sales. The Smith carbine uses a unique rubber cartridge to seal gas from escaping.

CONDITION: The two-piece Straight wrist black walnut stock is good, with a small chip on the left side of the forend's upper edge. 1'' crack on the bottom of the wrist, emanating from the lower tang. Hand oil staining in handling spots of the stock. The stock has shrunk/worn in spots over time & the metal is proud to the wood around the lower wrist tang, heel & toe. The left side of the wrist has two faint inspectors' cartouches, one is heavily worn but appears to be ''J.H.'', the other ''W.P.''. The metal has toned to a dark brown patina, with some spots worn gun metal gray & light speckled roughness across all the metal. The left side of the receiver is marked ''MANUFACTURED BY MASS ARMS CO. CHICOPEE FALLS.'', ''ADDRESS POULTNEY & TRIMBLE. BALTIMORE.U.S.A.'', ''SMITH'S PATENT JUNE 23.1857''. S/N is stamped on both barrel & receiver lugs of hinge. Rear lower tang screw is broken off leaving half the screw in the gun. The bore is good to fair, starting to darken with rust & has roughness/light pitting. The barrel holds a brass blade front sight with a flip up V-notch ladder rear sight. The stock carries a steel buttplate toning brown with roughness. The carbine has both bottom sling loops. Mechanical function appears solid with the hammer having solid click in the half & full cock position, receiver & barrel fitment has a little side to side play. Antique, No FFL Req - Value: 2000 to 4000

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Price

Massachusetts Arms Co. (Poultney & Trimble), 1859 Smith carbine... Item # 4436 This auction is over. No new bids can be placed. Price: US $1000

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