North & Cheney Model 1799 Flintlock Pistol, First Model
date: label: date made
content: ca 1799
name: label: maker
content: North, Simeon
label: maker
content: Cheney, Elisha
notes: label: Description
content: Physical Description:
label: Description
content: This .72 caliber smoothbore, flintlock U.S. First Mode l 1799 pistol was made by North and Cheney. It has a brass frame trigger guard and buttcap, an iron backstrap, no forestock, a one piece walnut handle, and a steel ramrod with button head.
label: Description
content: Under the brass frame, “S. NORTH & E. CHENEY BERLIN” is stamped. The barrel has a “P” on the left side and a “V” on the screw heads. Its serial number is “138”.
label: Description
content: History:
label: Description
content: Simeon North and his brother-in-law Elisha Cheney went into business for a short period of time. They produced around 2,000 Model 1799 Contract Pistols in two contracts – the first, delivering 500 and the second, 1500. It was the first official model adopted by the U.S. government.
label: Description
content: This first contract pistol was modeled after the Model 1777 French pistol. There are correspondence between North and the War department in 1801 and 1802 that verify shipments of these North and Cheney pistols.
label: Description
content: This pistol has the serial number 138. It was sold to Summer Healey’s gun store in New York City in 1933. Joe Kindig, Jr. purchased it from the store. It was then purchased by Edwin Bitter. Bitter loaned this pistol to the White House and it hung in President Kennedy’s Oval Office.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: Flayderman, Norm. Flayderman’s Guide to Antique American Firearms…and their Values, Gun Digest Books, Iola, 2007. 9th edition.
label: Description
content: Gardner, Robert E. Col. Small Arms Makers: A Directory of Fabricators of Firearms, Edged Weapons, Crossbows and Polearms, Crown Publishers Inc, New York: 1963, p. 142.
label: Description
content: Smith, Samuel E. and Edwin W. Bitter. Historic Pistols: The American Martial Flintlock 1760-1845, Scalamandre Publications, New York: 1986, p. 126.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Military and Society: Armed Forces History, Military
label: See more items in
content: Military
label: See more items in
content: The Bitter Collection of Firearms
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: The Adriana and Edwin W. Bitter Family Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1988.0518.03
label: accession number
content: 1988.0518
label: catalog number
content: 1988.0518.03
label: collector/donor number
content: P80L
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pistol
label: Other Terms
content: pistol; Firearms; Army; Flintlock; .72 In; Smooth Bore; Muzzle Load; Sa
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (part material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (part material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 14 1/2 in; 36.83 cm