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Renowned Colt historian and author John Kopec recently had the pleasure to examine this fabulous Cavalry Model and he recorded his
observations in the accompanying gold seal letter of authentication. Simply put no. 48403 is in stunning condition. As Kopec explained,
“Due to the unfired and excellent condition of our subject revolver, it is the opinion of this writer that it had remained unissued at the
Springfield Armory in brand new condition until it had been privately sold during the 1920s.” He touted the “deeply stamped and perfect”
inspector cartouches on the grip, “vivid case-colors of the frame remain near perfect,”, screws “remain in near perfect condition,” and “as-new
condition” grips. In the gold seal letter of authentication (not included) for Cavalry Model no. 48953 Kopec provided additional information
related to the condition of this revolver and other Nettleton inspected single actions in general: “Because of there being a quantity of
existing Henry Nettleton sub-inspected revolvers remaining in excellent or near-new condition in collections today, it is our opinion that
these revolvers had remained in unissued or brand-new condition at the Springfield Armory until they were released as surplus upon the
open market. We believe that at least two (possibly more) packing crates (each crate held 50 revolvers) of these revolvers were discovered
at the Armory during the 1920s.” The revolver was a new listing in Kopec’s survey and falls between nos. 48397 (a relic Cavalry Model) and
48404 (an Artillery Model). The nearest reference examples found in the National Archives records was nos. 48523 and 48528, which were
both issued to Co. F. 6th Cavalry as of early August 1888.