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LOT 1145
Exceptional Documented First Year Production Black
Powder Colt Single Action Army Revolver with Factory
Letter - Serial no. 1415, 45 Long Colt cal., 7 1/2 inch round
bbl., blue/casehardened finish, walnut grips. It’s the early
1870s, and Prussia was in the midst of rearming its military.
Baron von Oppen had taken a keen interest in arming his
native country and turned to his employer for the arms.
Von Oppen was a retired Prussian army officer and worked
for Colt. He had opened the Colt London Agency in
London, circa 1870 for the purpose of selling the Colt line
in England. The first half of 1873 found von Oppen ill and
he requested and received from his employer permission
to take a year’s worth of sick leave. He traveled to this homeland to recuperate and learned of the Prussian
government’s pressing need for military arms. Always a salesman, von Oppen took this opportunity to provide
Prussian authorities with samples of the Colt Single Action Army revolver, which had just passed U.S. military
trials and acceptance. Two lots of 40 revolvers each were shipped to Spandau. One lot was chambered for the .45
Long Colt caliber and the second lot was chambered for the .44 (10.6 mm) German cartridge. The revolvers in .44
caliber went on to be tested by the Prussian Military School of Musketry in 1874. The .45 LC lot was refused by
the Prussians as they wanted revolvers chambered in their .44 caliber German cartridge. The revolver offered here
was among the 40 chambered in .45 LC. The .45 LC revolver lot was returned to the Colt London Agency where
most were eventually sold. Years later the remaining fourteen unsold revolvers were returned to the Colt Hartford
factory to be sold on the U.S commercial market in 1887, such as this example.
Factory records for the .45 LC lot are confusing. Per noted Colt historian and author C. Kenneth Moore, “The
Factory records indicate that pistols were shipped to J.P. Moore’s Sons, New York City, and do not mention
Spandau nor the London Agency. J.P. Moore’s Sons were transfer agents for the Colt Company. The guns were
shipped to J.P. Moore’s Sons actually for the purpose of sending them out of the country rather than for their sales
room.” This revolver, no. 1415, is listed among the lot of 40 in Moore’s “Colt Single Action Army Revolvers and the
London Agency” on page 64. (A copy of this book is included.) Moore continued, “Some of these revolvers have
dual shipping dates in the Factory records. The second shipping date is very late in relationship to their serial
numbers. These are the revolvers the London Agency could not sell and returned to the Factory” (page 77). Our
subject revolver has a second shipping date, and a separate factory letter for this second factory shipping date is
included.
As noted in the factory letter, the revolver was shipped to J.P. Moore’s Sons of New York City
on November 18, 1873. This shipment was for 40 guns. The letter confirms the .45 caliber
chambering and blue finish with barrel length and stocks not listed, a common indication of 7
½ inches and walnut respectively. The gun was later part of a two gun shipment on July 7, 1887
to Alexander McComas of Baltimore, Maryland, and in the same configuration as it had been in when it
was first shipped from the factory in 1873. Ownership of the revolver is explained in a 2000 dated letter from C.
Summers Hunter: “The gun was give by someone to my grandfather, Clarence Summers Hunter, who in turn gave
it to my father, Clarence Summers Jr., who gave it to me, Clarence Summers Hunter III. The gun came from the
Midwest, possibly Missouri where my father was born.” The barrel has the early Colt Hartford one-line address.
The left side of the frame has the two-line patent dates marking followed by “U.S.” To fulfill the 80 gun shipment
to Prussia, it seems likely that a frame was pulled from parts originally meant to fulfill the U.S. contract. This
would have been a rushed order and complied in haste. With the exception of 80 units exported to Prussia and
21 civilian/commercial units, 1873 production of the SAA (serial no. range 31-3478) was mostly destined for the
U.S. government (see “The Official Record of the Colt Single Action Army Revolver 1873-1895,” page 42). Per Colt
historian Ron Graham, all SAAs in the J.P. Moore’s Sons November 18, 1873 shipment had “U.S.” stampings (see
Graham’s included letter). The trigger guard bow has the caliber designation “45 CAL” on the left side. Matching
full serial numbers appear on the frame, trigger guard, back strap, cylinder, and barrel. Note the barrel serial
number is correctly located ahead of the cylinder pin (not under the ejector rod housing) as seen on early
production SAAs. Graham noted, “The factory relocated this serial number placement to beneath the ejector rod
housing probably within days after 1415 was stamped.”
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