A SUPERB example of the work of Worcester gunsmith John Perrins - a master craftsman in the city for 60 years through the Victorian era - is about become a prized local museum piece.

It's an eight-inch "pepperbox" revolver made by Perrins more than 160 years ago and soon to be donated to the Worcester City Museum by vintage arms and armoury expert Vaughan Wiltshire of Tibberton.

He bought this pocket pistol at the nation's premier auction house for this type of antique two years ago. He paid £470 for it, specifically in order to donate it to the City Museum's display of articles manufactured in Worcester in times past.

Mr Wiltshire is a member of the Arms and Armoury Society, one of the leading groups in the world concerned with the study, collection and preservation of arms and armoury.

Gunsmiths and gunmakers were clearly much-respected craftsmen in Victorian times but in today's Britain, the type of weapons they produced are much frowned upon in view of the deadly "gun crime culture" hitting the nation's inner cities.

However, Mr Wiltshire points out that back in the 1840s, England's was "quite a heavily armed society with even the clergy and their servants carrying firearms." There were also many carriage pistols in circulation, taken as protection against highway robbers by passengers aboard stage coaches and carriages.

"Even in the 1880s, tailors were still putting special pockets in gentlemen's coats for pistols."

Mr Wiltshire has painstakingly researched the life and times of gunsmith John Perrins, who was born at Kidderminster, in 1796.

From leaving school, he was either an apprentice or junior employee in the gun trade and, by his 20s, was living and working in Faversham, Kent. However, by 1834, he had moved to Worcester and established a business in College Street. A city trade directory for that year lists John Perrins as a gunsmith.

Mr Wiltshire suggests that Perrins probably manufactured component parts for William Wood, the only prominent gunmaker in Worcester at that time, whose premises were at 18 Broad Street.

"Certainly, Perrins would have been skilled in making repairs to all types of firearms such as shotguns, blunderbusses, rifles and pistols, and by 1840 his business had expanded to the extent that he moved into new premises at 4 St Swithin's Street, Worcester," said Mr Wiltshire.

"Bentley's Worcester Directory of 1840 lists him as 'John Perrins - Gun maker' so by then, he was clearly making his own guns and inscribing his name on the lock plate. He would have produced the specifications and working drawings for firearms, most likely sub-contracting the manufacture of barrels and hammers but hand machining springs and striker mechanisms and perhaps also making his own walnut stocks and butts."

"Finally, he would have personally tested each weapon before selling it to a customer. Some guns and pistols would have been made specifically to a customer's order so the length of the butt and stock of a sporting gun matched the shoulder of the user, or a pistol's trigger guard had sufficient clearance for a gloved finger. Other guns would have been made for stock and sold over the counter."

By 1855, the firm's name had changed to "Perrins & Son" so clearly, John Perrins had taken into partnership his son, also named John. Four years later, they moved from St Swithin's Street to 6 Mealcheapen Street and, some time later, the following advertisement appeared in a Worcester newspaper:

"From August 1, Mr Perrins has decided to offer a genuine reduction of 20 per cent for cash on all best guns costing over £10 - this offer is due to him being overstocked with best guns, both the ordinary kind and hammerless."

Perrins & Son moved yet again - to 59 Broad Street, Worcester - and were still listed among local businesses in 1892, which meant that by then John Perrins had been operating successfully in the city for almost 60 years.

It's not known exactly when the firm went out of business though it may have been before the dawn of the 20th Century.

Mr Wiltshire has provided a highly detailed and technical description of the "pepperbox" revolver made by John Perrins in 1842 - the pistol about to the handed over to Tim Bridges, the Worcester City Museum collections manager.

It would have been known in the trade as "a six-barrelled, self-cocking, bar hammer pepperbox revolver" and measures eight inches overall with a barrel length of two-and-three-quarter inches. Its six barrels are each of 120 bore - that's to say 1lb of lead would cast 120 balls of this size.

It was the smallest gun barrel bore of its day that was regarded as having any stopping power. It was typical of the small calibre manufacture of these pocket pistols - larger barrel clusters would have made them clumsy and heavy.

Pepperbox pistols made their appearance in the late 1830s and were produced mainly for civilian use as the military requirement was for a heavier calibre weapon.

Pepperbox revolvers soon achieved considerable popularity because of their multi-shot advantage over single or double barrelled pistols. Some early models had four or six barrels which had to be rotated manually, but by the 1840s, mechanisms had developed to a pawl and ratchet system to rotate the barrels, activated by pressure on the trigger.

The six smooth bored barrels of John Perrins' 1842 revolver were drilled from a single block of steel, and each barrel is stamped with Birmingham proof marks showing that an official proof house had tested the barrels. Each barrel would have been loaded with gunpowder and ball by the use of a ramrod, kept separately.

The hammer and frame of the pistol are lightly engraved, and on one side beneath the scrollwork is the inscription "Perrins Maker."

Adds Mr Wiltshire: "The inscription is unusual in that John Perrins sought fit to emphasise that he was the maker of the pistol. At that time not many provincial gun makers would have had the skill to manufacture a pistol of this complexity. It is obvious that John Perrins took special pride in his skills as a gun maker and was keen to distinguish himself from other gun dealers."

Pepperbox weapons had a short history, however, and by the mid-1850s, had been superceded by the true revolver manufactured in large numbers in the factories of companies such as Webley, Lang, Daw and, of course, Colt.

Mr Wiltshire is very interested to know if any other pistols or guns made by John Perrins are still in existence. He strongly doubts if there are; none have come up in sales or auctions for many years.