Page 96 - 86-Book2

94
LOT 1118
Extraordinary Historic Civil War Engraved and Gilded Robert Adams Beaumont-Adams Double Action Percussion Revolver with Horn Grip and Case Inscribed as Presented to Virginia Tobacco Tycoon William Cameron in 1865 by Captain F.W. Fuller of the Blockade Runner City of Petersburg - Serial no. 41346, 44 cal., 6 inch octagon bbl., gold finish, horn grips. This incredibly ornate revolver is the Beaumont-Adams pattern based on Robert Adam’s 1851 design improved by Lt. Frederick E.B. Beaumont in 1855. Beaumont’s contributions allowed the revolver to be used in single or double action instead of just double action like the original Adams design. Robert Adams operated from the address on the case and topstrap in the 1858-1865 after leaving Deane, Adams & Deane and the London Armoury Company. His advertisements in the 1860s prominently included an ornately engraved Beaumont-Adams pattern revolver, and an extremely similarly decorated revolver with a more elaborate case is shown in plates 318 and 319 of “British Gunmakers: Their Trade Cards, Cases, and Equipment, 1760-1860” by Neal and Back. These revolvers were among the few double action revolvers available during the American Civil War. The revolver features nearly full-coverage engraving and gold plating. The engraving patterns are varied and complex but mainly consist of classic scroll patterns. The smaller parts are finish in blue or polished bright. The top strap is signed “ROBERT ADAMS. No. 76 KING WILLIAM STREET. LONDON.” The right side of the frame has “ADAMS’ PATENT No. 41,346,” in a banner, and “No. 41,346” is also marked on a banner on the cylinder.
It has London proofs. The horn grip has a gilt and scroll engraved pommel with six small malachite bosses and an oval malachite cap. The revolve comes in the original brass-bound rosewood case with fitted purple velvet lined interior. The interior of the lid has the gilt “R. ADAMS/MANUFACTURER OF FIRE ARMS,/PATENTEE OF THE REVOLVER./76 KING WILLIAM ST.” marking. The accessories include: a scroll engraved and gilt Hawksley powder- flask, a gilt-brass mounted ebony cleaning rod with worm, a scroll engraved and gilded brass double-cavity bullet mold, a scroll engraved Hawksley oil bottle, a turned container with spare nipples, an ebony handled nipple wrench, and a key. The central escutcheon on the case lid reads: “Present to/WILLIAM CAMERON ESQ./ OF PETERSBURGH VIRGINIA/by/F.W. FULLER/as a mark of respect/AND IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT/OF HIS UNIFORM KINDNESS/AND CONSIDERATION./Liverpool/MAY 24: M DCCCLXV.”
The presentation inscription is date May 24, 1865, was the same time as the Grand Review of the Armies in Washington, D.C. at the end of the war celebrating the Union victory. It was presented to Virginia tobacco tycoon William Cameron from the captain of the steamer City of Petersburg, a blockade runner during the Civil War owned by Petersburg businessmen. William Cameron (1829-1902) was born in Grantown, Iverness-shire, Scotland. The family later moved to Petersburg, Virginia, in the 1840s, and he became a leading tobacco manufacturer in Virginia. He partnered with his brothers Alexander Cameron (1832-1915) and George Cameron (1835-1916), and operated a very successful group of interconnected tobacco businesses such as William Cameron & Bro., Cameron & Cameron, Cameron Bros. & Co., Alexander Cameron & Co., and others throughout the mid to late 19th century. He patented a hydraulic press for manufacturing plug/chewing tobacco on November 9, 1858. His businesses continued operations during the Civil War.
While the elder Cameron brother is said to have played no active part in the war itself, Alexander Cameron
was “supercargo” of the City of Petersburg and ran the Union blockades between Wilmington, North Carolina,
and Nassau and Bermuda with Captain Fuller and deposited the brothers’ wealth in English banks, and George Cameron served as a private in “Wolfe’s company of Archer’s battalion” and was captured at Petersburg on June
9, 1864. Captain Fuller is discussed in a January 28, 1865, vice-admiralty court records in Halifax in relation to the City of Petersburg, and F.W. Fuller in ads from May 1865 in the Daily Post of Liverpool, England, is listed as the commander of the steamer City of Petersburg (700 tons, 300 horse-power) under the heading “Dublin Exhibition” (referencing the 1865 World’s Fair titled the International Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures in Dublin May 9 to November 10, 1865). The City of Petersburg and Old Dominion commanded by J.J. Aitkin are noted as sailing from Prince’s Landing Stage in Liverpool every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to Kingstown. The steamer was built
by James Caird Co. of Greenock and launched in 1863 per “British Blockade Runners in the American Civil War”
by McKenna. The City of Petersburg is identified as partially owned by Alexander Cameron during the Civil War in documents from the Civil War.