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Rock Island Auction Company Proudly Presents:
One of the Great Icons of 19th Century of American Fine Arms Collecting:
The McClatchie Root
LOT 64
Iconic and Transcendent, Gustave Young Factory Presentation Engraved, Deluxe Finished Colt Model 1855 “Root” Percussion Revolver Inscribed to Colt Employee and Samuel Colt’s Timekeeper, James McClatchie, from Colt’s P.F.A. M. Co - Serial no. 12076IE, 31 cal., 3 1/2 inch round bbl., blue/casehardened finish, antique ivory grips. Rock Island Auction Company proudly unveils one of the greats. Renowned for its immaculate original condition and undeniable brilliance. 12076IE, better known simply as “The McClatchie Root” stands in extremely limited company: famous guns with a nickname that have been lauded for decades by collectors, authors and historians, immortalized
in print, can boast “finest known” for a model and certainly belongs in any conversation regarding the truly elite, historic, and fine arms of any genre or historic pedigree.
Presented from Colt’s Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company to longtime company employee James McClatchie, Samuel Colt’s Timekeeper who was active with the company from 1853 through 1864. While less is known about McClatchie than this model’s namesake, Elisha K. Root, he was one of
the most important Colt executives during its most pivotal decade. James McClatchie oversaw employee’s time. This might seem obvious in
the twenty first century but at the time, it was revolutionary. Colonel Colt cut no slack when it came to his employees arriving to work on time, mandating a lunch break, and locking the factory doors during shifts. Samuel Colt was an industrial revolutionary, and the concept of the time and efficiency was at his core.
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