GUN FALL 2017
The live portion of this session begins on Tuesday, October 31, 2017.
BRASS FRAME PERCUSSION PISTOL ATTRIBUTED TO J&F GARRETT, GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA.J.F. GARRETTSINGLE SHOT7652Cal. 52. We are calling this pistol a Garrett because most early literature describes it as such, but we do not know definitively who made these guns. They are very well made. Most Confederate handgun collectors try to find one of these scarce pistols. This pistol has long been associated as Confederate assemblage, but at the same time there have been questions as to its origins and use. Albaugh, Benet and Simmons in their book, Confederate Handguns, devoted an entire chapter to these pistols, suggesting they were made up by J&F Garrett & Co. of Greensboro, North Carolina, the name by which they have since been known. Garrett was the manufacturer of the Tarpley's patent breechloading carbine. The association was primarily the result of an effort to identify the pistols referred to in DeBow's Review, a Southern bimonthly publication, as being among the items being manufactured in 1862 by the Garretts. In all the years that have passed, no one seems to have identified the source of these pistols and in particular how an apparently substantial supply of Model 1842 pistol barrels, ramrods, hammers, and trigger guards came to be in need of assembly with a brass frame and new grips". Recent research has shown that there were quantities of surplus 1842 pistol parts. The failure rate at Aston & Johnson was quite high. We now know Palmetto Armory contract 1842 pistols are made from Aston-Johnson condemned 1842 parts, so there is no doubt a quantity of these parts was available. Regardless of who made these pistols, they are scarce, and this is a very presentable example with good collector provenance. PROVENANCE: Leon Jackson, Dallas, Texas; Dr. Robert L. Moore, Philadelphia, Mississippi, 1972; outstanding estate collection of Confederate and historical arms of Morris Racker. CONDITION: Very good overall. The brass trigger guard and brass swivel are variants to those normally seem. US proofs on the model 1842 bbl still discernible. Matching SN 76 found internally. Mechanically functional with clean, smooth bore. 51958-18 JS (3,000-4,000)