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Rare, Documented, Historic Crimean War Cased Factory Engraved Colt Model 1851 London Navy Percussion Revolvers with Presentation Inscriptions to French General Pelissier from “The Inventor” Samuel Colt
LOT 3105
-A) Colt Model 1851 Navy Revolver -
Serial no. 9035, 36 cal., 7 1/2 inch octagon bbl., blue/casehardened/silver finish, walnut grips. This cased pair of Colt Model 1851 London Navy Revolvers was manufactured in 1854 and features historic presentation inscriptions on the back straps reading: “Genl Pelissier/from the Inventor.” The case lid is also inscribed “Gen Pelissier,/from
the Inventor.” The revolvers are illustrated on page 228 of “The Colt Engraving Book Volume 1” by R.L. Wilson where Wilson notes that “colonel Colt correspondence with Pelissier exists, in the Wadsworth Athenaeum collection of approximately fifty letters and other documents, involving VIPs with whom Colonel Colt had friendships, or business or social associations. Pelissier was a major figure in the French involvement in the Crimean War. The Colonel’s intentions
of building an armory in France are considered to have been instrumental in Colt’s judiciously placed presentation arms, to figures like Pelissier, and The Emperor, Napoleon III.” The Pelissier presentation
Colts are contemporaries of the cased pairs of Model 1851 Navy revolvers presented to French Emperor Napoleon III sold by Rock Island Auction Co. in 2019 and the cased pair sold to Lord Cardigan, British Commander
of the Light Brigade, sold by Rock Island Auction Co. in 2021 for $184,000.
The famous Charge of the Light Brigade occurred on October 25th, 1854 during the Crimean War. The recipient of this exquisite set of cased presentation Colt London Navy revolvers, French General Aimable- Jean-Jacques Pelissier (1794-1864), one of the most powerful and influential figures in France in the mid-19th century, took command of an army corps in January of 1855, took command of the French forces at Sevastopol in May of 1855 and very
96 quickly made his presence known, going
as far as defying orders of Napoleon III in order to secure victories, and successfully captured the important port city on the Black Sea after his men took the Tower of Malakoff. He was subsequently promoted
to the highest rank as Marshal of France
and Duke of Malakoff as rewards. The latter was the only victory title bestowed during Napoleon III’s reign. General Aimable-Jean- Jacques Pelissier had been an officer since 1815 and had risen from a second lieutenant in the artillery that year to a major-general (general de division) by 1850 and military commander of Oran. By that time he had been shown to be ruthless and is noted to have ordered mass executions of resisting tribal peoples in Algeria, including driving the Ouled Riah tribe from their settlements and then suffocating them in caves in 1845 which on one hand earned him public scrutiny but also led to him being promoted to brigadier-general. He was the interim governor of Algeria in 1852 during Napoleon III’s coup d’etat. Pelissier was also the vice president of the French Senate, a Member
of the Privy Counsel, Commander in Chief
of the Army of the East, Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honor, and Governor General of Algeria. Pelissier was in London as the French ambassador from March 1858 to April 1859 before returning to Algeria where he was Governor General until his death in Algiers in 1864.
The presentation of these London Navy revolvers is documented in period correspondence between Samuel Colt and Henry Pelham Fiennes Pelham-Clinton, the Fifth Duke of Newcastle, active as Secretary of War for Britain between June 12th, 1854-January 30th, 1855, whom Colt had personally present the revolvers to General Aimable-Jean-Jacques Pelissier “in the field of battle” in August of 1855, during the Siege of Sevastopol.