Page 166 - 88-BOOK2

LOT 1160
Scarce Documented Civil War
Fluted Cylinder Colt Model 1860 Army Percussion Revolver Included as Part of a Shipment to Governor William
Dennison of Ohio with Factory Letter - Serial no. 4346, 36 cal., 8 inch round bbl., blue/casehardened finish, walnut grips. The factory letter indicates that this revolver was one of 100 shipped to Governor William Dennison in Columbus, Ohio, on June 14, 1861, and confirms the configuration including the “plated” grip frame. This early Colt Model
1860 Army has the highly desirable early full fluted cylinder. While over 200,000 Colt Model 1860 Army Model revolvers were manufactured, only around 4,000 were manufactured with fluted cylinders, making this variation especially desirable. Some of these distinctive Colts were even shipped to the South before and at the very beginning of the Civil War. Of the small amount of these
fluted cylinder revolvers made, most of them were no doubt heavily used during the war, making surviving examples particularly scarce. Given that another 300 gun shipment
of fluted 1860 Army revolvers was also shipped to Governor Dennison the same day as the shipment of this revolver, a large fraction of these fluted 1860 Army variants appear to have gone to Ohio. William Dennison Jr. was the 24th Governor of Ohio from January 1860 to January 1862. As governor, he was famously enthusiastic about the call to arms at the onset of the Civil War. He mobilized over 100,000 troops and used them to secure Ohio’s railroads and telegraph lines and also sent troops under George McClellan into western Virginia without federal permission to protect the First Wheeling Convention. The convention ultimately led to the formation of the new free state of West Virginia. Lincoln appointed him Post Master General in 1864. He also served as the head of the Republican National Convention that year. Ohio was a crucial state for the Union War effort thanks to its central location, large population, waterways, and railways. These revolvers were very likely issued to the Ohio cavalry. This example features the one-line Hartford barrel address, “COLTS/PATENT” frame marking, frame cut for a shoulder stock, fluted cylinder with the 1850 patent date marking, and matching serial number “4346” marked on the frame, barrel, trigger guard, butt, cylinder, wedge, cylinder arbor pin and handwritten in black ink inside the grip mortise. CONDITION: Very good, exhibiting smooth chemically enhanced brown patina on the barrel and cylinder with traces of original blue finish on the barrel. Patterns of case colors visible on the frame, loading lever and hammer with smooth gray and brown patinas on the balance. The front strap/trigger guard retains 40% of the silver plating on and around the bow with golden bright patina on the balance of the brass. The grip is very good with numerous dents and scratches, moderate edge wear and a chipped area on the left edge. Mechanically excellent. This is a great example of a scarce fluted cylinder Colt 1860 Army revolver with Civil War history. Estimate: 4,500 - 6,500
LOT 1161
One Volume of “Report: Small Arms” from 1854 Signed “Compliments
of S Colt” - This lot contains a copy of “Report: Small Arms. Ordered by the House of Commons, to be Printed,
LOT 1162
Historic Six
Volume Set
of “Practical
Mechanics
Journal,”
Each Signed
“Sam Colt”
- The lot
contains
“Practical
Mechanics
Journal”
Volumes 1
through 6.
Each is signed
“Sam Colt”
inside the
cover and/or
on the flyleaf
suggesting the
books came from Colt’s personal library. Other books are known double signed in similar fashion, and the signatures are similar and match other examples of items signed
by Samuel Colt, including linking the “m” to the “C.” Colt’s
patents are discussed in some of the volumes.
CONDITION: Good with moderate age and storage related
wear including some flaking and loss. The “Sam Colt” signatures are distinct. Estimate: 1,500 - 2,500
12 May 1854.” The top of the cover is
signed “Hon Charles Chapman with
the Compliments of S Colt.”“S Colt” is
signed with the S linking straight into
the C. The signature is in keeping with
other Samuel Colt signatures which are
somewhat varied, and he abbreviated
he first name and then linked it to the C
in Colt. Pages 84-89 covers “Lieutenant-
Colonel Sam Colt, State of Connecticut,
U.S. America, called in; and Examined” and discusses Colt’s factories in Hartford and in London, the types and quantities of arms his factories were producing, and his opinions on English martial arms and firearms production. Further discussion of Colt’s firearms continues elsewhere, in testimonies of other witnesses. Charles Chapman (1799-1869) was originally a Whig, but, in 1854, he ran unsuccessfully for the governorship of Connecticut as the Temperance candidate and had previously served in the state House of Representatives and as U.S. District Attorney in the 1840s and then as the representative for Connecticut’s 1st District in the U.S. House in 1851-1853. He was again elected to serve in the state House of Representatives
in 1862 and 1864 as a Democrat. His son, Charles R. Chapman (1827-1897) was also a lawyer and politician and was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives and Senate in the 1850s, mayor of Hartford in 1866-1872, and then Hartford’s city attorney and postmaster in 1885-1890. In 1854, the Hartford Daily Courant printed reports of the use of “Colt’s Pistols” by the English cavalry during the Crimean War, including the Battle of Alma. Some of the claims are far fetched, such as that “Colt’s holster pistols are effective at 400 yards, it may be imagined how much the fact of nearly every officer, both commissioned and non-commissioned in our regiments in the Crimea, being armed with these pistols, must have contributed to the defeat of the Russians, whatever advantage they held, both from position and entrenchments.”
CONDITION: The volume itself is fair with the pages separated and flaking, but the inscription on the cover is very nice and
distinct and has a crisp “S Colt” signature. 164 Estimate: 1,200 - 1,800