Henry Deringer Pocket Pistol

About the Henry Deringer Pocket Pistol

The Henry Deringer Pocket Pistol is a single-shot percussion muzzleloading pistol made in Philadelphia from 1852 until Henry Deringer's death in 1868. Chambered most commonly in .41 caliber and firing a single round lead ball, it had a short rifled iron barrel (typically around 2 to 2.5 inches), a walnut stock and German silver furniture, and was small enough to conceal in a coat pocket. Sold in pairs as a backup self-defense weapon, it became so famous that its maker's name entered the language as the generic 'derringer'. One was used by John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

Henry Deringer never patented his pocket pistol, and after John Wilkes Booth used one to kill Abraham Lincoln, the design's notoriety was permanent, so much so that the misspelled 'derringer' became the generic term for any small concealable single-shot pistol.

Henry Deringer Pocket Pistol specifications

Calibers ranged from roughly .31 to .50, with .41 the most common; barrel length varied widely from barely over one inch to four inches or more. The pistol Booth used was a Henry Deringer of Philadelphia of approximately .44 caliber. The name was widely imitated, and Deringer won a landmark trademark-infringement suit over copies.