BY THE MID-19TH CENTURY, single- and double-action revolvers, such as those pioneered in America by Samuel Colt and in Great Britain by Robert Adams, were considered mainstream. Multi-barreled handguns in the guise of Sharps’ popular .22- and .32-caliber rimfires, the Remington Double Derringer, the Mossberg Brownie, and small cartridge Continental Arms pepper-box-like “fist pistols” had been, in most cases, relegated to the roles of special-purpose or novelty arms.
It is curious then, around 1882, with the myriad of fine service-caliber revolvers available from a number of makers, one well-established firm, Charles Lancaster & Co., felt it was still a practical idea to market a proprietary, service-grade multi-barrel pistol. Lancaster, known for its line of high-grade shotguns and rifles, also retailed others’ longarms as well as conventional revolvers made by the…