Lot 92

Historic Hall Model 1817 Breech Loading Flintlock Rifle

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Lot 92
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Historic Hall Model 1817 Breech Loading Flintlock Rifle
Historic Hall Model 1817 Breech Loading Flintlock Rifle
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Historic Hall Model 1817 Breech Loading Flintlock Rifle

Estimate: $40,000 - $60,000

Starting Bid: $35,000

(0 Bids)
by Rock Island Auction Company
June 27, 2026 5:00 PM CDT
Live Auction
3600 Harwood Road
Bedford, TX, US 76021

Incredibly Rare and Historically Significant Well-Documented U.S. Hall Model 1817 Breech Loading Flintlock Rifle with Bayonet, Part of the Very First U.S. Federal Contract for 100 Hall Rifles In the year 2026, we all take mass production for granted. It is the norm for just about everything we depend on while we cherish hand-crafted, bespoke pieces. That was not the case during the American Revolution 250 years ago. In 1776, pretty much everything was produced on an individual basis by skilled labor. True factory production was limited largely to textiles. Firearms in particular were made on an individual basis, and few of their parts could be interchanged without additional fitting. For example, the Land Pattern Brown Bess muskets widely used in the American Revolution were built to standard patterns, but individual contractors produced various parts. Parts from different contractors varied. The necessary parts were then assembled by Ordnance workers. That all changed with the advent of interchangeable parts manufacturing in America and the development of the American system of manufacturing. While the British often get the credit for starting the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century with the industrialization of textile production, it was the Americans that developed the manufacturing techniques required to produce interchangeable parts for durable goods such as firearms at scale which remains key to factory production to this day and made the United States a world power. Before the early 1820s, it was considered essentially impossible. Others, including French gunmakers, had previously attempted to produce interchangeable parts and failed, but in the United States in the early 19th century that all changed. At the epicenter of this American revolution sat gunsmith John Hall (1781-1841) and his innovative breechloading rifle. Hall was born in New England during the Revolutionary War and began experimenting with firearms production while serving in the American militia in the early 1800s. In particular, Hall focused on designing a rifle that could be loaded more rapidly. He patented his tilting breech breechloading rifle design in 1811 (U.S. Patent No. 1,515X). He initially made approximately 50 rifles per year mostly for the local market, but the design also gained interest from the U.S. government. However, Hall was initially unable to accept a contract because he would be unable to meet the production deadlines. He recognized that producing parts individually and hand fitting them to the stocks significantly slowed down production, especially given his rifles were more complex than the standard muzzleloaders of the day. Nonetheless, in 1817, Hall accepted a government contract for a limited run of 100 rifles. These rifles were manufactured at Hall's original shop in New England, and the Model 1817 rifles hold the distinction of being the very first breech loading firearms procured by the U.S. federal government. They are discussed in detail on pages 460-464 of George D. Moller's "American Military Shoulder Arms, Volume II", and the historic rifle in this lot is featured and discussed on four of the pages. Moller states: "On November 20, 1816, Maine gunmaker John H. Hall proposed to furnish the government with 100 of his patent breechloading rifles with bayonets at $25 each. Chief of Ordnance Decius Wadsworth accepted the proposal on January 10, 1817, with the provision that the rifles were to be delivered within one year. Hall completed the 100 rifles by October 1817. They were subsequently inspected by George Talcott and were accepted by the Ordnance Department on December 5.” Moller notes that ninety-eight of these rifles were shipped from Boston via Baltimore and Pittsburgh to St. Louis in 1818, and they were issued to Fort Bellefontaine, the first U.S. military installation west of the Mississippi River. The historic fort served as a fur trading post as part of the factory system and was thus key to relations with Native American tribes in the West. The rifles remained at Bellefontaine through the 1820s aside from three located nearby at Fort Smith and Fort Atkinson, and they are believed to have been used by the Missouri militia in the 1830s, possibly including by Missouri volunteers in Florida during the Seminole Wars which may explain why, outside of museums, surviving Hall Model 1817 rifles are nearly nonexistent in collections today. One is known to reside in the Harpers Ferry Armory museum, and another is in the Missouri History Museum. Their collection record states: "Extremely rare Model 1817 U.S. contract breechloading flintlock rifle from John H. Hall's first government contract for 100 firearms, which were sent to Fort Bellefontaine. Fewer than five examples are known to exist." Though Hall was able to meet the production demands of the 1817 contract, in order for his innovative rifles to be used more widely by the U.S. military, far more than 100 per year would be required. Hall accepted another contract in 1819 with the War Department. This time, he was contracted to produce 1,000 breechloading rifles at Harpers Ferry with interchangeable parts on the “uniformity principle”. To do so, he had to develop the machines, gauges, and necessary systems to do something no gunsmith had before accomplished. He faced numerous hurdles, but on December 20, 1822, he wrote to Secretary of War John Calhoun that: “I have succeeded in an object which has hitherto completely baffled (notwithstanding the impressions to the contrary which have long prevailed) all the endeavors of those who have heretofore attempted it – I have succeeded in establishing methods for fabricating arms exactly alike, & with economy, by the hands of common workmen, & in such manner as to ensure a perfect observance of any established model, & to furnish in the arms themselves a complete test of their conformity to it.” Tests by the Ordnance Department confirmed his claims, including disassembling 100 rifles and mixing the parts and reassembling them without issue. In 1827, commissioners noted that his level of interchangeability was thought to be “almost or totally impossible.” Thus, the American system of manufacturing was born and with it its first product: the Model 1819 Hall breech-loading rifle. The Model 1819 Hall became the first breech-loading firearm widely adopted by any national military and a rifle that could be loaded and fired at a rate faster than the smoothbore muzzleloading muskets which were then the international norm and far faster than muzzleloading rifles. By the end of 1840, 19,680 Model 1819 Hall rifles had been produced at Harpers Ferry. They saw use in the Second Seminole War, Black Hawk War, and Mexican-American War, and many remained in service during the American Civil War. Hall’s development of interchangeable parts was key to the American system of manufacturing that revolutionized not just the firearms industry but the entire industrial system through the development of machinery and tooling that allowed the production of duplicate parts with only semi-skilled labor rather than the labor intensive processes of individually produced parts with extensive hand fitting required that had been the standard to that point and also made repairing arms far more complicated. Further developments allowed a diverse array of American companies to produce hundreds of thousands of rifle-muskets during the American Civil War and thus aided the Union's ability to overwhelm and defeat the Confederacy. In the early 20th century, these manufacturing techniques made the United States the most powerful industrial country, and American industry armed not just the vast U.S. armed forces but our allies across the sea during World War II, producing rifles, machine guns, ammunition, bombs, tanks, and other critical war materiel in incredible quantities. The typewriter manufacturer Remington Rand, for example, produced nearly 1 million Model 1911A1 pistols in 1943-1945, and their parts are largely interchangeable with the hundreds of thousands of pistols produced by other manufacturers during the fight to defeat fascism in Europe and North Africa and Japanese imperialism across the Pacific. This historic Model 1817 rifle comes from the beginning stages of Hall’s triumph and features an octagonal barrel with eight-groove rifling the length, a 3 5/8 inch rounded section at the muzzle with a rectangular lug on top for mounting the included "JB" and "US" marked socket bayonet, wedge barrel retainers, and left offset dovetail mounted front and rear sights to accommodate for the right offset flintlock action components at the breech. The rifle is finished with brown lacquer on the barrel and has a casehardened breechblock, walnut stock, and wooden ramrod with a brass tip. The top front of the breechblock is marked "JOHN H. HALL/PATENT" in two lines, and the right side of the breechblock is marked "R.B." and "32" (partial 2). The brass upper tang is "US" marked. Golden age American long rifle influence is evident in the stock and fittings, including the distinctive brass patchbox, trigger guard with a prominent finger spur, and curved buttplate. "GDM" (George D. Moller) collection initials are discreetly marked at the toe of the stock.

Manufacturer: Hall

Model: 1817

BBL: 34 inch octagon

Stock: walnut

Gauge: 52

Finish: brown

Serial NumberNSN

Class: Antique

  • Provenance: Formerly of the George D. Moller Collection
  • Condition: Very good with gray/brown patina, scattered light pitting providing evidence of period field use, and sharp markings in the iron. The brass mounts display attractively aged patina. The stock is fine with scattered light scratches and light chips, a small hairline crack behind the upper tang and at the rear of the left flat, and defined edges throughout. Mechanically excellent. This historically significant Hall U.S. Model 1817 would be a cherished centerpiece in any early U.S. martial collection!

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $199 $10
$200 $499 $25
$500 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $25,000