April 24-25, 2019 Extraordinary, Sporting, & Collector Firearms
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/25/2019
This revolver features the New York address, full octagon barrel, six shot, single action, blued and case colored finish, Ormsby Naval battle roll engraved cylinder scene, brass trigger guard and backstrap, and one piece walnut grips with cartouche on both sides. Backstrap, trigger guard and cylinder have inspector mark "M". Barrel has inspector mark "S". "V" left on trigger bow and "G" on left trigger guard. Full or partial matching serial numbers can be found on frame, barrel, trigger guard, backstrap, cylinder and loading lever, and is written in pencil inside grip channel as well. All original nipples and pin intact. Has the small trigger guard. CONDITION: The Naval battle scene is 100% near new. Cylinder retains approximately 65% original blue, balance simply smooth patina from flaking. Barrel has some patina coming through finish with freckling and some light spots of flaking along left side of barrel; fully 85% or better. Screws have the majority of their nitre blue. Frame, loading lever and hammer retain 95% of their original case colors, mostly bright. Grips are near new with brilliant cartouche stamp "JT" on left panel for John Taylor, who signed his oath as a sub-inspector of contract arms at Hartford, Connecticut on October 20th, 1862 but bounced around with inspection assignments in both Hartford and New York City. Left grip also has sub-inspector "M" which is never seen. Like new action. Right grip panel has an inspection stamp in oval "WAT" for William A. Thorton, who returned from New Mexico in 1857 and in 1858 he was restored to his position as commander of the New York Ordnance Department; this inspector stamp would indicate that while the gun's frame was manufactured in 1857 this revolver was not inspected for government service until 1858 at the earliest. Near mint bore. It does not appear that this revolver was ever actually fired upon examination of the nipples and cylinder face, and the lack of wear at the forcing cone, and has to be one of the finer known examples of a Martially marked 1851 Navy revolver. This is considered by many collectors that are familiar with this collection as one of the finest surviving examples of this type to ever surface. From the Jim Linton Collection.
Caliber/Bore
.36 Percussion