Hopkins & Allen Dictator

About the Hopkins & Allen Dictator

The Hopkins & Allen Dictator is a five-shot, single-action pocket revolver produced in Norwich, Connecticut between roughly 1869 and 1872. Derived from a Thomas Bacon-designed .36 caliber percussion pocket revolver acquired by Hopkins & Allen, the great majority of Dictators were converted at the factory to fire the self-contained .38 rimfire metallic cartridge before shipping. Marked 'Dictator' on the barrel and typically fitted with a nickel-plated finish and walnut grips, it was a typical inexpensive civilian self-defense arm of the early metallic-cartridge era. The Dictator trade name was later reused on an unrelated .32 rimfire spur-trigger 'suicide special' in the 1880s.

The Dictator belonged to the wave of cheap, mass-produced pocket revolvers that flooded the American market after the Civil War, sold under a parade of grand trade names to civilians seeking affordable personal protection.

Hopkins & Allen Dictator specifications

Estimated 5,100 examples produced; over 80 percent left the factory already converted from .36 percussion to .38 rimfire. Dimensions are approximate, derived from the typical 4-inch (102 mm) barrel pocket-revolver configuration.