Allen & Wheelock Providence Police Model Revolver

About the Allen & Wheelock Providence Police Model Revolver

The Allen & Wheelock Providence Police Model is a compact five-shot, single-action .36 caliber center-hammer percussion revolver built in Worcester, Massachusetts by Ethan Allen's firm. It features a short octagonal barrel (commonly 3 to 5 inches), a spur trigger with no trigger guard, and a solid frame with no attached loading lever, and is regarded as Ethan Allen's final percussion revolver design. Fewer than about 700 were made in the early-to-mid 1860s, and although Allen collectors associate the model with the Providence, Rhode Island police, no documentary evidence confirms it was ever actually issued to that force.

Allen collectors have long called this the Providence Police model on the belief that the Providence, Rhode Island police department bought them, yet no surviving record proves the force ever carried one. The mismatched 3-, 4-, and 5-inch barrels found on survivors quietly undercut the police-contract legend, since departments of the era ordered guns to a single standard length.

Allen & Wheelock Providence Police Model Revolver specifications

Offered with 3, 4, and 5 inch octagonal barrels; the varying barrel lengths argue against a standardized police contract. Two construction variants are known, one with a small side-plate screw and one with an internal pin securing the side plate. Guns are typically unmarked; surviving blue finish is extremely rare. Sometimes attributed to E. Allen & Co.