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LOT 1008
Exceptional Civil War Era Factory Engraved and Silver Plated First
Model New Haven Arms Co. Henry Lever Action Rifle with Wooden
Henry Cleaning Rod - Serial no. 1446, 44 Henry RF cal., 24 1/4 inch
octagon bbl., blue/silver finish, deluxe walnut stock. Rock Island
Auction Company is honored to be able to offer this beautiful example
of an engraved and silver plated Henry rifle, bearing serial number
1446, as manufactured in 1863 during the middle of the Civil War.
Factory engraved Henry rifles are scarce and among the most desirable
of all the antique firearms by collectors today thanks to their important
place in the development of lever action firearms and the Winchester
Repeating Arms Co., as well as their place in the history of the American
Civil War, the West, and popular culture. This highly attractive factory
engraved Henry is about as desirable as it gets, with a factory silver
plated brass frame and buttplate, along with a deluxe select grain
walnut stock. The combination of silver plating and engraving was a
$10 special order option offered from the New Haven Arms Company
starting in 1862, and the frequency of Henry rifles made with these
options quickly declined due to the company discouraging special
order features during the peak of production at the height of the Civil
War in order to meet production demands, per information on page
13 of Wiley Sword’s book “The Historic Henry Rifle” (2006 publication).
Many of these special ordered Henry rifles were known to have been
presented to officers and prominent individuals. Of interesting note,
this example, serial number 1446, has a factory engraving pattern
extremely similar to another silver plated Henry rifle only three
numbers away, bearing serial number 1449, that was recently sold by
Rock Island Auction Company (Lot 14, May Premier 2025).