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Exceptional Historic Samuel Colt Presentation Deluxe Factory Engraved Colt Model 1849 Pocket Percussion Revolver Inscribed to Steamboat Captain Joseph King “From the Inventor” with Case and Accessories
LOT 1151
Exceptional Historic Samuel Colt Presentation Deluxe Factory Engraved Colt Model 1849 Pocket Percussion Revolver Inscribed to Steamboat Captain Joseph King “From the Inventor” with Case and Accessories - Serial no. 90328, 31 cal., 5 inch octagon bbl., blue/casehardened/silver finish, deluxe factory walnut grips. This historic revolver is one of three beautiful factory engraved revolvers known to have been presented by Samuel Colt
to steamboat captains operating out of the Northeast in the mid-1850s. Captain Captain J.J. Comstock of the U.S. Mail Steamship Baltic’s Colt Model 1851 revolver was sold by Rock Island Auction Co. in 2021 for $276,000. As discussed below, Captain Joseph King of the Granite State along with Captains Comstock and Mills who received the other revolvers were likely personally known by the well-travelled inventor Colt who himself got started as a young man as a sailor. By 1854, Samuel Colt had gone from a teenage at sea to one of the wealthiest men in the country thanks to the incredible success of his revolvers. But Colt was not one to simply sit back and enjoy his wealth. He travelled frequently and continued to work fervently to expand his business empire. Part of his innovative public relations and advertising campaigns was presenting revolvers to well-connected and influential figures, including to multiple European naval officers and a shipbuilder. Other presentations were were thank you gifts or presents for friends and business associates, but even the latter served to continue to enhance his reputation.
This stunning factory engraved Colt Model 1849 Pocket from 1854 features beautiful factory engraving likely engraved by legendary Master Engraver Gustave Young early in his career as an engraving contractor in Hartford.
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