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Colonel
Embury
Philip
Clark
LOT 198
Extremely Rare Factory Documented Spanish-American War Smith & Wesson .44 Double
Action First Model Revolver in .38 Long Colt Shipped to Colonel Clark and Consecutively
Numbered to Another Shipped to Colonel Theodore Roosevelt with Factory Letter - Serial
no. 36670, 38 Long Colt cal., 6 1/2 inch solid bbl., blue finish, walnut grips. The Smith & Wesson
.44 Double Action First Model was introduced in 1881 and continued to be sold until 1913.
Total production reached 54,668, and nearly all of them were in .44 S&W Russian. However, this
extremely rare revolver from 1898 is one of a very small number produced in .38 Long Colt for use
with standard U.S. military service ammunition during the Spanish-American War. In “Standard
Catalog of Smith & Wesson, 5th Edition,” only up to 10 are estimated to have been made, and Smith
& Wesson historian Roy Jinks previously noted only 2. The revolver features a pinned half-moon
blade front sight, notch rear sight on the barrel latch, the two-line address and patent marking on
the rib ending in “MAY 11 & 25 1880,” the Smith & Wesson trade mark on the right side of the frame,
checkered walnut grips with “9076” stamped on the inside of the right grip along with penciled
“36670”, and the matching serial number “36670” on the barrel, latch, cylinder, and butt. Also
included is a display card, International Art Publishing Co. portrait of Roosevelt in his Rough Rider’s
uniform, and research information.
The included factory letter states that this incredibly rare revolver was chambered for the “special
caliber for military issue .38 Government or .38 U.S. Service cartridge” and was shipped on June 10,
1898, to “Colonel Clark” and that it had a 6 1/2 inch barrel and blue finish. 203