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LOT 3091
Incredibly Rare, Outstanding, Civil War Era Round Frame Spiller & Burr Percussion Revolver - Serial no. 1066, 36 cal., 7 inch octagon bbl., blue/silver/casehardened finish, walnut grips. This is the rarest of the rare, one of four known examples of a round frame Confederate Spiller & Burr percussion revolver. This revolver is chambered in the standard .36 Navy caliber and features a large cone front sight mounted on the octagon barrel, frame groove rear sight, six-shot cylinder with
six cylinder stops, rounded edges on the frame as opposed to the standard hard edges on Spiller & Burr revolvers, and walnut grips. The matching serial number “1066” is marked on the bottom of the barrel, loading lever, cylinder pin, frame under the trigger guard, underside of the trigger guard, butt, and handwritten on the underside of both
grip panels, with the cylinder unnumbered. The barrel and cylinder are blue finished, the hammer, loading lever, and trigger are casehardened with a blue outer finish, and the brass frame and trigger guard were originally silver plated. The silver plated finish, which is a feature not seen on standard production Spiller & Burr revolvers, in combination with the extra attention paid to fit and finish of this revolver, are a possible indication that it may have been made for presentation to
a high ranking government official. Two other known examples of round frame Spiller & Burr revolvers are also known to have silver plated frames and are bearing serial numbers 1169 and 1076 and a third round frame bearing serial number 1079 reportedly exists (finish unknown at time of writing). Although this rare round frame example
is an exception to the overall production total; according to some sources, approximately 700 Spiller & Burr percussion revolvers were manufactured in Atlanta, Georgia, circa 1862-1864, and another roughly 700 were manufactured at the Macon Armory after the firm was purchased by the Confederacy in January of 1864.