June 12-13, 2019 Edged Weapon, Armor, & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/12/2019
Between June of 1858 and December of 1853, the Ordnance Department purchased some 6,988 Colt Dragoon pattern revolvers. They were issued to both the US Cavalry and Dragoon regiments, as well as to some of the various states under the Militia Act of 1808. With the outbreak of the Civil War, the Ordnance Department officially moved to the use of belt holsters for revolvers, and for the first time began to acquire holsters for Dragoon revolvers on contract. The Emerson Gaylord company had entered into the military accouterments business in 1841 in partnership with N.P. Ames of the famous Ames Manufacturing Company. Over the next decade the firm would become the premier Ordnance Department accouterment contractor. The dragoon holster was produced using the standard four-piece construction process used on most Civil War US contract holsters. The four major pieces were the holster body, the closure flap, the belt loop and the toe plug. A fifth small piece was the closure tab. The body was folded and sewn along a single long seam on the outer edge, with the closure flap sewn to the rear of the body. The toe plug was sewn into the bottom of the holster body. The belt loop was sewn onto the rear of the body and reinforced with three copper rivets. The closure tab was riveted to the closure flap and reinforced with stitching. In his book, Meadows suggests that at most only a few thousand of the Gaylord Dragoon holsters were produced. Although the actual production figures are not known, based upon extant examples, the production was rather limited. Meadows additionally postulates that some of these Dragoon sized holsters may have been used for other, non-standard secondary martial revolvers, like the M1858 Starr Double Action revolver, which would not fit in the standard Colt/Remington “army sized” holster. CONDITION:This holster is dark brown rather than the more common black finish. There is some light crazing to the leather on the body. It is probably one of the finest all original Dragoon size Gaylord's to survive. Complete with toe plug, body, flap and closure with all of its stitching intact and bold cartouche. One of the best.