Model 2A by Tipping & Lawden of Birmingham, England. This is one of those Sharps pepperboxes that was produced under a licensing agreement with a foreign maker. Tipping & Lawden secured an English patent (#207/1859) to protect the Sharps design in that country. The Birmingham based gunmaking firm of Tipping & Lawden was the trade name partnership between Thomas Tipping Lawden and Caleb Lawden, who established themselves as gun, rifle and pistol makers at 40 Constitution Hill in 1837, expanding to 40 & 41 Constitution Hill in 1852. In 1860, the firm added a London location at 18 Buckingham Street. In addition to the usual production of military pattern muskets and rifles (both for military contracts and commercial sale), the company manufactured sporting arms for the general gun trade both in England and abroad. The firm also established itself as a major manufacturer of handguns in Great Britain by the end of the 1850s. Their first major success in that vein was the manufacture of double action percussion revolvers under Willian Harding’s 1858 patents for Deane & Son in London (these were of the “Deane-Harding” pattern). In 1859, the firm procured the rights to manufacture Sharps’ Patent four-barrel pepperbox revolvers under a licensing agreement with C. Sharps & Company of the United States.