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LOT 3131
Rare and Highly Desirable Documented U.S. Marked B Company No. 175 Colt Walker Model 1847 Percussion Revolver with Herb Glass and R.L. Wilson Letters of Authentication - Serial no. BCompanyNo175, 44 cal., 8 15/16 inch part round bbl., blue/casehardened finish, walnut grips. The legendary Colt Walker revolvers were manufactured at Eli Whitney Jr.’s Whitneyville, Connecticut, factory for Samuel Colt’s to fulfill a U.S. contract for 1,000 revolvers. The revolvers were serial numbered A-D Company 1-220 and E Company 1-120. Although purchased to arm the Mounted Rifle Regiment, the first 394 A, B, and C Company revolvers were issued to the 1st Regiment, Texas Mounted Volunteers commanded by Colonel Jack Hays at Vera Cruz, Mexico, on October 26, 1847. When the Texas Mounted Volunteers mustered out of service on May 8, 1848, they turned in 191 Walker revolvers; 202 pistols were lost in service or retained by
the Texans. The remaining 600 Walker revolvers
were issued to the Mounted Rifle Regiment in
Mexico or the 1st Dragoon Regiment on the Texas/
New Mexico frontier following the Mexican War.
The Walker revolvers saw hard service. In 1984 Lt. Col. Robert Whittington III identified 150 surviving A, B,C, D, and E Company marked revolvers in his book “The Colt Whitneyville-Walker Pistol.” Twenty-seven B Company marked revolvers are listed in his book including this revolver, serial number 175. This revolver was also listed in the well-known list of Wilbur Quick as owned by Kimball Arms Co. in Woburn, Mass. in 1940 and in the Texas Gun Collector June 1953 issue of “Names and Addresses of Whitneyville-Walker Owners.” It was also featured in the article on the famous 2003 “Parade of Walkers” in “The Gun Report.” The Texas Gun Collectors Association certificate for Dale and Eileen Strong for displaying this Walker as part of the “Parade of Walkers” at the Texas Gun Collectors Association in the Spring of 2003 is included.
This massive 4 lb. 9 oz. revolver has a 9 inch barrel with a German silver blade front sight, period added dovetailed notch rear sight, modified loading lever with a Dragoon style loading lever latch, “ADDRESS. SAML COLT NEW-YORK CITY” barrel address on top reading from the breech towards the muzzle, “B COMPANY No 175” on the left above the wedge, and “US/1847” and a large “G” on the right. The frame has “JG” on the right and “B COMPANY No 175” on the left. The brass squareback trigger guard has “B COMY No 175” ahead of the bow, and the butt of the iron backs trap is marked “B COMPANY No 175.” “175” is marked on the bottom of the wedge and arbor pin, on the front of the frame between the pins, on
the left side of the front gripstrap, and in the mortise of the “Slim Jim” grip at the toe. The massive six-shot cylinder has a very faint markings and has the distinctive oval stops and single safety pin. R.L. Wilson believed the markings include the number “12.” What remains is may actually be traces of “17” from “175.” Tom Seymour in his analysis of the revolver in 2001 also considered the latter to be a possibility. Colt expert Herb Glass in his March 1, 2023, letter indicated that he believed the markings to be “12” and possibly an “E.” It would have originally had the Texas Ranger and Indian fight scene and the two-line inscription “U.S.M.R./COLTS PATENT.” There are faint “P” inspection marks on the trigger guard and
rear gripstrap.
A large framed photograph of the revolver laying on the included R.L. Wilson research letter is also included. In the letter, Wilson indicates “Walker Colt No. B Company 175 is an authentic Walker revolver, far more complete and original than the vast majority of specimens, and is a splendid example of a revolver which served its due on the Western frontier, and has survived remarkably complete, fully deserving of a distinguished private collector or museum.”The document binder accompanying the revolver also tracts its provenance from the time it was sold by Kimball Arms Co. in 1953 to the present, including analysis of the revolver by multiple Colt experts. Dale Strong, for example, states, “it is
the opinion of Bobby Vance, Bobby Smith, John Gangel and myself that B Company 175 may have been one
of the 17 Whitneyville conversions sent to Colt-Eli Whitney for modification. ‘V’ notch sights were
a favorite of many Texas Rangers using both Walkers and Dragoons.”
Glass’s letter posits that the “G” and “JG” markings on the revolver are “probably for the gunsmith who installed the
rear sight and modified the lever to a Dragoon latch. However, in his included write-up, Glenn Klein also concluded that this revolver was a Whitneyville conversion and investigated the revolver’s early history and found
the potential significance of the “JG” marking. Colonel John Coffee Hay’s men of the First Regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers were issued 214 “C Company” Walkers on October
19, 1847, and then received another 180 revolvers from the “A Company” and/or “B Company” lots that arrived on October 22, 1847.
Samuel Walker
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DISPLAYED AT THE TGCA "PARADE OF WALKERS" AND FEATURED IN THE ISSUE FROM FALL 2003