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It has been reported that introduction of the American-made version occurred during the late 1870s, when it was available in three sizes: a seven-shot .32 model, a six-shot .38 S&W model and a five-shot model for the .44 Webley cartridge. Of those three calibres, the latter appears to have been the most popular.

Revolvers of that pattern were advertised by the manufacturers Forehand &Wadsworth in their catalogue of c. 1880. They were eventually listed by the San Francisco gun dealers N. Curry & Brother in 1884 and also appeared in a catalogue of that same year by E.C. Meacham, St. Louis. In order to distinguish the American model from others, it was claimed that only genuine examples were marked with the Forehand & Wadsworth trade mark (depicting the head of a Bulldog stamped onto the left side of the frame). However, not all examples were marked thus, as some were without the trade mark but displayed the company name on the barrel flat and so it seems that mainly the earliest examples had the “dog’s head” stamp.