Jarre Harmonica Gun
- Category
- Pistol
- Barrel
- 102 mm
- Weight, empty
- Not recorded
- Introduced
- 1862
About
What it is, and why it matters
The Jarre Harmonica Gun is a mid-19th-century French repeating pinfire handgun built around a sliding horizontal steel block of chambers, typically ten, that advances across a fixed barrel as the gun is cocked and fired. Made in Paris by the Jarre firm in 7mm (and 7.65mm/9mm) pinfire, it offered high capacity for its era but was awkward to carry because the protruding block had to be removed for holstering. Patented in France and the United States between 1859 and 1862, it was made obsolete within a decade by self-contained centrefire cartridges.
The horizontal cartridge bar slides across the barrel like the mouthpiece of a harmonica being played, which is exactly how the gun got its name. Jonathan Browning, father of John Moses Browning, independently built American slide-bar harmonica guns, tying this oddball French design to one of the most famous names in firearms history.
Inventor recorded variously as A. Jarre or J. Jarre of Paris. Genitron lists .38 caliber (likely an error); auction and reference sources consistently give 7mm pinfire with 7.65mm and 9mm variants. Dimensions vary by example.
Specification
Everything measured
IdentityWhat it is, who built it and when.
- Manufacturer
- Jarre & Cie
- Category
- Pistol
- Country
- France
- Status
- Discontinued
- Produced
- 1862
DimensionsAs issued, without a magazine or an optic.
- Barrel
- 102 mm
- Overall length
- 254 mm
ActionHow it cycles, what trips it, and what feeds it.
- Firing mechanism
- Double action
- Trigger
- Double action
- Capacity
- 10
- Magazine
- Internal
MaterialsEach swatch is the material itself, not a colour chosen to stand for it.
- Frame
- Steel
- Barrel
- Steel
- Stock
- Wood
Trajectory
What the round does downrange
Solved from the muzzle figures and the bullet. The dashed rule is the effective range on the record, and the crosses are the steps the solver returned.
No load solved for this record yetThe flight path is computed from a cartridge and a bullet. This record has no ammunition filed against its chambering, so there is nothing to solve.
Features
What it has
What the record lists as fitted, drawn from the catalogue.
Sliding chamber block- Pinfire
- Repeating
- Spring advanced block
Standing
How it compares
This record has too few measurements to compare with others yet.
Answers
Questions about the Jarre Harmonica Gun
What caliber is the Jarre Harmonica Gun?
The Jarre Harmonica Gun is chambered in 7mm Pinfire.
How many rounds does the Jarre Harmonica Gun hold?
The Jarre Harmonica Gun holds 10 rounds, fed from an internal magazine.
How long is the Jarre Harmonica Gun?
The Jarre Harmonica Gun is 254 mm (10.00 in) long overall, with a 102 mm (4.02 in) barrel.
Who makes the Jarre Harmonica Gun?
The Jarre Harmonica Gun is made by Jarre & Cie (France). It was designed by Jarre.
When was the Jarre Harmonica Gun introduced?
The Jarre Harmonica Gun was introduced in 1862.
Compatibility
Which parts fit this firearm
Studio
Every part that mounts on this, resolved
Not a list the maker typed out: the answer comes from the mounts this firearm exposes and the interface each part needs, so it stays right when either one changes.
- Every part that mounts on any firearm in the catalogue
- Interface standards, platforms and fit overrides
- The same answers through the API and the MCP server
Requires a signed-in GunSpec account on the Studio plan. The answer is computed per part, so it is not part of the public record.
Provenance
What the record holds
Every figure above was taken from one of these pages. The confidence reflects how much of the record came from a page a claim can be checked against.
Provenance
Confidence in this record
55%
Stockists
Where to buy
Offers link straight to the shop. GunSpec never takes the order.
No shop has listed this firearm yet
Stock and prices come from the shops themselves. If you sell this firearm, you can list it and it appears here.
List a firearmMCP
Ask an assistant about it
The same record, reached the way a person asks for it rather than the way a program does.
Ask GunSpec
Works with
Point an MCP client at GunSpec and it answers from the catalogue rather than from memory. A free key covers the read tools.
API
The call that returns this record
The same fields, in the same units, from the same endpoint the page reads.
curl --request GET \ --url 'https://api.gunspec.io/v1/firearms/harmonica-gun' \ --header 'X-API-Key: your_key'{ "id": "harmonica-gun", "name": "Jarre Harmonica Gun", "manufacturer": { "id": "jarre", "name": "Jarre & Cie", "countryCode": "FR", "foundedYear": null, "website": null, "logoUrl": null, "description": null, "status": null, "defunctYear": null, "stateOwned": null, "makesFirearms": null, "parentId": null, "predecessorId": null, "createdAt": "2026-06-21 23:00:46", "updatedAt": "2026-06-21 23:00:46", "version": "fcef351515a9f0f1fbf64a31675abe71e7fb878cdc061cda0687c5235e32b55b" }, "category": { "id": "pistol", "name": "Pistol", "description": "Handguns designed to be fired with one or two hands" }, "country_of_origin": "FR", "year_introduced": 1862, "barrel_length_mm": 102, "weight_empty_g": null, "action_type": null}