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LOT 3064
Finest Known Documented Early Production Three Digit Serial Number 164 New York
Engraved, Nickel and Gold Colt Model 1871-72 Open Top Revolver with Checkered Ivory
Grip - Serial no. 164, 44 RF cal., 7 1/2 inch round bbl., nickel/gold finish, checkered antique ivory
grips. The Colt Model 1871-72 Open Top Revolver is highly prized by collectors for its limited
production and its significance as the transition model between the Colt cartridge conversions
and solid frame Single Action Army revolver, paving the way for the Single Action Army which
was an immediate success shortly thereafter. Approximately 7,000 Model 1871-72 revolvers were
manufactured between 1872 and 1873. These were some of the first Colt cartridge revolvers
available in the West and often saw hard use on the western frontier, remaining in use as working
guns well into the period of dominance of the Single Action Army. As a “frontier working gun,”
this model of Colt rarely featured deluxe embellishments. The rarity of period engraved examples
is explicitly noted by R. L. Wilson in “The Book of Colt Firearms”: “[E]ngraved specimens of the 44
open Top Frontier are extremely rare. Of the few known engraved, the majority were decorated
outside the Colt factory, principally by the dealers Schuyler, Hartley and Graham of New York City”
(page 237). These “engraved specimens” are highly prized by collectors and the limited availability
means that even the most advanced private or public collections lack an example.
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