October 30 - November 2, 2018 Firearms, Militaria, & Sporting
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/30/2018
The John Kopec letter of 2003 notes “we believe it is 100% authentic in every respect. The barrel address is the second style, grip cartouches are perfect and totally correct. The barrel is not serial numbered and originally fitted to this revolver during manufacture. Several revolvers from within this series are recorded in our survey with either mismatching barrels or barrels without a serial number. This is because of a problem which was encountered during production with the alignment of the barrel to cylinder…to keep production running as smoothly as possibly, the Ordnance inspector, Lieutenant David A. Lyle accepted these revolvers as long as the barrel to cylinder alignment passed his strict gauging (this is a normal occurrence within the JTC series).” Revolver was manufactured in 1877, inspected by David A. Lyle and sub-inspected by John T. Cleveland. Historically this revolver cannot be found in National Archives. John goes on to speculate possibilities. You will find the initials “JTC” stamped on barrel, frame, right grip panel, cylinder. The left grip is dated 1877 and has a clear “DAL” cartouche in oval (David A. Lyle), right grip has “JTC” for John T. Cleveland. Still has early donut head ejector and “US” stamped on frame. Razor sharp legends throughout. All four perfect clicks. Bore exhibits razor sharp rifling, lightly frosted grooves and minor black powder abrasion. Extremely clean, handsome revolver. Early, rare Lyle/Thompson inspected. Colt factory letter simply states Serial No. 35529 sent to US Government, May 13th, 1877 in a shipment of 203 guns.