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CONDITION: Very good, displaying a very attractive as found dark patina associated with a revolver that has spent a
lifetime in the challenging Texas environment with some original blue finish on the back strap. The worn grips show similar “working gun” character from spending a lifetime in the hand. There is play in the cylinder, otherwise the action cycles properly. The stock is very fine retaining 85% original nickel plating. Without a doubt this is an extremely rare 16 inch barreled standard frame back powder Colt Single Action Army revolver with collector pedigree that is unmatched and is well worthy of the finest public or private collection. It shows all the authentic grit and grime of a frontier survivor! Provenance: Major Julius Whitley; A.S. Dodson; T.E. Dodson; The Gaines de Graffenried Collection; Amon Carter Museum of Western Art; Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum; Frazier History Museum; Property of a Gentleman. Estimate: 25,000 - 40,000
The gun has been exhibited at several museums: Amon Carter Museum of Western Art in Fort Worth, Texas (“Frontier Guns,” January 23-April 1964 with museum paperwork included); Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and
Museum in Waco, Texas; and Frazier History Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. The revolver is pictured on pages 16-17 and identified on page 28 of the Amon Carter Museum catalog for the “Frontier Guns” exhibit. In Roger Conger’s the “Texas Collector: Gaines de Graffenried” the revolver is pictured and identified on pages 28-39. The book recounted de Graffenried’s dogged presentence in getting Dobson to sell the gun. De Graffenried first laid eyes on the revolver in 1936 when it sat in a storefront window in Cameron, Texas, and at the time the owner would not sell. It would be nearly two decades later before de Graffenried had another run in with the gun. The gun was also featured in the cover article to the September 1957 issue of The Gun Report by Roger Conger as well as in an article by Charles Worman in the March 1971 issue of Hobbies.
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