#248 A Schneider and Company derringer that is a medium size for this
brand of gun. Barrel is full octagon. Trigger guard and tear drop
buttcap are made of sterling silver and other inlays are of German
silver. Made without ramrod. The stock forearm at the nose is fluted.
Trigger guard finial has a screw going through to the barrel to hold the
gun together, along with the wedge helping to hold the forearm to the
barrel. Most of the Schneider guns have a definite pronounced curve
shape to the lock. Notice how low the hammer is. The lockplate is very
plain with a simple lined border. The caliber of this specimen is .450.
The serial number of this gun is #122, the highest known. Of all the
Southern made derringers, this is the only maker that serial numbered
his guns. Of course this is an assumption that the number on top of the
breechblock is the serial number, but all that we have ever seen had a
similar number in this position. Assuming that the Schneider Company
manufactured one hundred and twenty-two pieces, and that possibly thirty
of these guns are in existence, this means that the survival rate is one
out of four. Bearing in mind that this survival rate is only an
assumption, consider how few guns some of the lesser known makers must
have produced. At this rate, for instance, Siebert should not have
produced many over six or eight guns.
I have known of this gun’s existence for nearly thirty years. In 1943
when I was taking the train from Union City to Chattanooga, I happened
to sit down by a Mr. Fain Taylor from Greenfield, twenty miles away. We
got to talking and found out that we were both interested in guns, and
he told me that he had this gun. Then after the War was over, I went by
to visit him and see his collection. Of course, this gun was not for
sale. At that time and during the years gone by in the 1930’s he used
this little pistol as a training gun for his bird dogs out in the field.
The years went by and I would see him ever so often and ask him about
his gun. Finally, in 1967 he appeared at the store one day and said,
“Well, I’m going to let you have my gun. You like these Southern
derringers so well that I think the best place for this gun to be is in
your collection.” With that, I paid him the going rate for this type of
gun and of course I don’t think that I will ever dispose of it in my
lifetime.
The barrel is marked on the top flat in two lines with one stamp as
follows:
Schneider & Co.
Memphis, Tenn.
Schneider was a gunsmith in the 1850’s and later a member of the
revolver making firm of Schneider and Glassick.