Sold for $3,000
.38 caliber. 3.125" tapered round barrel with full-length nocksform. SN: NSN. Browned barrel, color casehardened lock, German silver mountings, checkered walnut stock with semi-Schnabel forend. Single shot muzzleloading percussion derringer style pistol. Back action percussion lock is unmarked and engraved with light foliate scroll decorations. The hammer, breech, breech plug tang and triggerguard are engraved en-suite. Top flat of barrel is stamped J.B. GILMORE. German silver mountings include the triggerguard, barrel wedge escutcheons, butt inlay and shield shaped wrist escutcheon.
According to the limited information in Wilson & Eberhart's The Deringer in America Volume I. Jerome Bonaparte Gilmore (1827-1900) was born in Jefferson County, KY and moved to Shreveport, LA in 1849 where he initially worked for gunmaker David Probst, before he established his own business circa 1853. According to their research which is based primarily upon Turner Kirkland's seminal work Southern Derringers of the Mississippi Valley, Gilmore produced his own derringer copies and also sold agent-marked pistols made by Henry Deringer. This example appears to be one of the Gilmore produced guns and not an agent marked Deringer produced gun.
Gilmore joined the Confederate cause in 1861 as the captain of the the Shreveport Rangers, men from Caddo County in Louisiana, who would become Company F of the 3rd Louisiana Infantry. On May 8, 1862 Gilmore was elected the lieutenant colonel of the regiment and transferred from Company F to the Field & Staff. he was wounded at the Battle of Iuka on September 19, 1862 and subsequently appeared on an October 14, 1962 list of men from the 3rd and 4th LA Infantry that were captured and paroled at the Battles of Iuka, Corinth (October 3-4, 1862) and Hatchie (October 5-6, 1862). He was officially exchanged via the steamer Dacotah, near Vicksburg, MS on October 18, 1862. He was promoted to the command of the regiment as its colonel on November 5, 1862. He was again captured at Vicksburg, MS on July 4, 1863 when that city surrendered to Grant's forces and was paroled the following day. On August 20, 1863 he submitted his resignation from the Confederate Army, which was officially granted on August 22, 1863.
After the war, Gilmore did not return to gunsmithing. The 1870 Census showed that he was the mayor of Shreveport at that time. The 1880 Census showed that he was a "Cotton Buyer". Gilmore died in 1900 at the age of 73. His brief time as a gunsmith in Shreveport from 1853-1861 resulted in a relatively small output of firearms produced by him, as it appears that much of his work was that of a traditional gunsmith, repairing broken guns and selling guns made by other makers which he sometimes applied his retailer mark to. Gilmore derringers very rarely come to market and this is a great opportunity to own one of the true rarities in Southern Derringer collecting.
Very good. Bore about very good, darkly oxidized with strong rifling. Barrel with a mottled pewter gray patina with scattered surface oxidation, discoloration and some lightly scattered surface roughness and light pitting. Lock with a dull smoky gray patina and hints of the case colored mottling in protected areas. Barrel marking clear and crisp. Mechanically functional action. Wood very good with decent edges and fairly crisp checkering, showing some scattered bumps, dings and mars and a minor crack at the lock mounting screw that runs to the barrel channel. There is also a small chip missing on the reverse at the tip of the forend.