Little Ace Derringer

 

 

  

Billed as "The world's smallest REAL derringer", the Little Ace is said to be a copy of the Ethan Allen & Co. vest pocket derringer. It has a swing out barrel that opens to the right when in half-cock and held in place by a ball detent.

The earliest models were made in Norridge IL and labeled for '.22 BB & CB caps'. 

 

Later production examples from this location started were labeled '.22 SHORT STD VEL ONLY' 

 

 

The frames were made of bronze and the barrels made of steel. Since these were made by hand, we see some slight variation in each model. For example, some were fit with flat hammer springs while others were fit with wire springs as seen here: 

 

 

The standard grips are the black plastic or resin, round butt grips while other options were available.

Some examples of grip variations seen in the wild:

 

Each derringer was wrapped in moisture resistant waxed paper, similar to what we see with S&W today. 

 

 

While operating in Brownsville Texas, we see a user manuals being included with the box. It contained loading, operating and cleaning instructions as well as a detailed parts list on the rear. 

 

 

 

The boxes were made of cardboard and would usually have the "Little Ace" logo/sticker on one end and a hand written serial number on the other, show below. 

 

Below are a few of the box styles seen in the wild. Notice the color variation, the fact that some were glued on to the boxes and some were printed directly to the boxes themselves.  

 

 

Inside each box was warning/disclaimer not to use high velocity ammo. 

 

 

 

Mr. Ed Buffaloe of The Unblinking Eye website has an excellent article on the Little Ace and I suggest reading it here. 

He also has some great articles on other hard to find firearms and is worth looking into. Click here to see others.