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Colt’s rapidly expanding firearms company hired many of
the best German trained engravers that immigrated in the 1850s, but Young rose to the top quickly and became the lead engraving contractor in the 1850s and remains one of the most famous and influential American arms engravers. The entwining scroll engraving is incredibly finely detailed and features punched backgrounds, floral blooms, rayed accents, finely beaded backgrounds, crosshatched panels,
a bestial mask design on the hammer, and border designs. The “COLTS/PATENT” marking on the left side of the frame is hand engraved, and the barrel features the ornate “Saml Colt” inscription. All of the visible serial numbers match. There are small dot markings by the lower serial numbers designating the revolver for factory engraving. The cylinder has a “2” by the serial number. The revolver is fitted with a finely figured deluxe walnut grip with a high polish varnish finish. The back strap is inscribed “Capt Jos. H. King/Steamer Granite State/ From the Inventor.”The revolver comes in a factory case with lead balls and bullets, an early brass ball/bullet mold, small eagle pattern powder flask, blued L-shaped combination tool, Eley Bros. cap tin, cartridge pack, and key. This revolver was unknown before being sold from a private collection
in Massachusetts in 2017 in a different case. The set is accompanied by an extensive research binder from Greg Lampe providing information on the set’s original owner, his vessel, and his family. Included in the binder is an original freight receipt from the steamer Granite State in 1872.
This revovler was presented to Captain Joseph H. King (1822-1879) of the steamer Granite State which running up and down the Connecticut River from Hartford to New York from the mid-1850s until the mid-1860s. Captain Mills of
the City of Hartford also received an inscribed Model 1849 Pocket in 1854, and, in May of 1854 he is reported as having helped rescue Colt’s workers and their families who were stranded by a flood on the Connecticut River. It is possible King’s crew also helped during that event. The third captain to receive one of these revolvers from Samuel Colt was Captain J.J. Comstock of the U.S. Mail Steamship Baltic. He received Model 1851 Navy serial number 30523 from 1854. His ship was one of the fastest of the period and set records for the fastest trips across the Atlantic between New York and Liverpool as part of the famous Collins Line. Colt and his wife Elizabeth crossed the Atlantic in 1856 with Comstock on the Baltic, and Colt would have taken the City of Hartford and Granite State back and forth from his factory and home in Hartford to his sales office at 155 Broadway in New York City. Thus, Samuel Colt likely knew all three men from his frequent travels, and their vessels would have also carried his revolvers to New York City and the illusive international market in the United Kingdom. Colt himself was intrigued by boats and
the sea and began his career as a sailor when he was 16 and famously conceived of his first revolver design while working on the brig Corvo. It was said to have been inspired by the Corvo’s capstan, indicating he was a keen observer of naval technology from an early age.
Captain King had worked on steamers in the 1840s and married Frances J. Post in 1848. She was the daughter of Captain Russel Handy Post. By 1849, King was the captain
of the steamboat Hero on the Connecticut River between New York and Hartford just as Samuel Colt’s new firearms enterprise really took off. The steamer Granite State was built in 1853 as a running mate for the steamer City of Hartford built in 1852. King took command of the City of Hartford in the mid-1860s. They were run by the Hartford & New York Steamboat Company. The Granite State was a sidewheel steamer of approximately 887 tons and was powered by
a vertical beam engine from the Morgan Iron Works and could run around 16 knots. The boat has 40 finished fancy state rooms, including two bridal suites, as well as a saloon. Its carrying capacity was 900 passengers and could carry
up to 1,400 tons of freight. Samuel Colt likely rode on the Granite State frequently as he made business trips between his factory in Hartford and his primary sales office in the
busy city of New York and may have come to know Captain King quite well. The Hartford Courant in the summer of
1854 featured advertisements for the Granite State listing King as her captain noting that it would leave at 3:20 P.M.
on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The City of Hartford left for New York on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 2 o’clock. Colt would have thus been able to also return from New York on either ship on the other days. The steamers also carried freight back and forth between the cities, including Colt’s revolvers. For example, in August 1864, reports indicate that the Granite State landed in New York with 42 boxes of revolvers and ammunition which were reportedly labeled as “Sunday school books” and were destined for Copperheads in Indiana as part of an order for 30,000 revolvers, some of which were also carried on the steamer City of Hartford. Indiana officials also found four hundred Colt ‘51 Navy revolvers and 135,000 rounds of ammunition already
in the offices of H.H. Dodd & Co. labeled the same way. Copperheads had reportedly planned to spring Confederate prisoners, arm them, kill Governor Morton, and seize control of the state.
CONDITION: Excellent with crisp engraving and markings, 95% plus of the original blue finish remaining overall, attractive age darkened patina on the silver, and only minor age and storage related wear. 90% of the muted original casehardened finish remains. The grip is also excellent and has nice figure, nearly all of the original high polish varnish, minor spot of wear at the top of the grip on the right, and minimal light handling and storage marks. Mechanically excellent. The case and accessories are very fine and have minor age and storage related wear. This is an incredibly rare and attractive, Samuel Colt presentation inscribed, deluxe factory engraved Colt Model 1849 Pocket revolver inscribed to steamboat captain in the antebellum era. Opportunities to own exceptional Colts like this previously unknown to the collector world are very rare!
Provenance: The Greg Lampe Collection.
Estimate: 65,000 - 95,000