Mariette Patent 7mm Pinfire Revolvers

Here are a couple variations of the 7mm pinfire revolver made by the Mariette family of gun-makers who lived in Cheratte, Liège, Belgium. This particular design was patented in 1862 by Servais Joseph Celestin Mariette, the son of the well known gun maker, Guillaume Mariette.

Across the Mariette family there were dozens of firearm patents registered and the designs often crossed over into patents by others in the family. There is also a lot of crossover when making the actual guns as well; for example, guns patented by Guillaume Mariette could be made and have a mark of his brother, Gilles Mariette.

This revolver design was patented in a percussion version by Guillaume Mariette in 1861 but the pinfire version was patented a year later by Guillaume’s son, Servais.

The design had a screw at the bottom of the frame which when unscrewed allowed the front of the frame and barrel to slide off. You could then slide out the cylinder, load the cartridges, stick everything back on and re-screw the screw back on to tighten it back up. You can see this in action in the following video.

The patent and my first example show a single-action revolver. This revolver has a half-cock mode allowing you to rotate the cylinder and a full-cock with the trigger releasing the hammer at either position.

These are both chambered for the 7mm pinfire cartridge such as these 7mm pinfire cartridges manufactured by the Belgian maker, Charles Fusnot.

My second example is a double-action-only revolver though everything else is pretty similar.

They are uncommon pinfire revolvers and there are other variations as well including ones chambered for larger cartridges.