GUN SPRING 2017
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/11/2017
RARE CASED COLT BISLEY FLATTOP TARGET SINGLE ACTION REVOLVER.COLTBISLEY160865455ELEYCal 455 ELEY. Rare Bisley with 7-1/2" bbl, square base target front sight and V-notch rear sight in a dovetail in the top strap. Bbl has 1-line block letter address with caliber marking on left side. Left side of frame has 2-line 3-patent dates and Rampant Colt in the circle. Bottom of bbl and in the cyl flutes have tiny British proofs. Mounted with extremely rare smooth 2-pc walnut grips with last 4-digits of matching SN inside each grip. Accompanied by a rare English oak, red felt lined casing with brass medallion in the lid and Colt's Pall Mall label inside the lid. Bottom is compartmented for the revolver, a cartridge block an ebony handled turnscrew and an ebony & brass cleaning rod. Right rear compartment contains a Dixon pewter oil bottle with 2 cleaning jags. There were only about 44,350 of the Bisley revolvers produced 1894-1915 of which only 976 were target models and of those only 180 were in caliber 455 Eley. The bbl on this revolver is without the marking "(BISLEY MODEL)". From A Study of the Colt Single Action Army Revolver, Graham Kopec & Moore: "The new Target Model's outstanding performance at England's famous target shooing matches held at Bisley Common, prompted Colt's management to redesignate their 'Special Target' revolvers as the 'Bisley Model Target'." After serial range 161,000 most target models are encountered with bbl markings "(BISLEY MODEL)". Again according to referenced publication they cite the lack of the Bisley marking between SNs 156,300-160,900 which encompasses our revolver. Another virtually identical Bisley flat top target SN 161396 with identical smooth walnut grips was sold by Julia's in October 2014. CONDITION: Extremely fine plus, all matching including cylinder & grips. Overall retains about 97-98% glossy orig factory blue with some very minor scattered spots of surface discoloration on the frame & cylinder. Cylinder has a faint line but shows no evidence of ever having been fired. Hammer retains most of its bright fire blue on the edges with bright polish on the sides. The checkered trigger retains about 75% crisp fire blue showing wear on the left top side. Grips are sound with a couple of very minor nicks in the finish and retain virtually all of their factory oil finish. Mechanics are crisp, brilliant shiny bore. Case is equally new. 51687-1 JRL (15,000-25,000)