October 25, 2023 The Paul Friedrich Collection of Firearms & Gold Rush
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/25/2023
Full or partial matching numbers observed on barrel assembly, frame, trigger guard, butt wedge, rammer, and cylinder. 5" barrel with rammer assembly, 5 shot cylinder, squareback triggger guard, pinched cone front sight, and hammer notch rear sight. Cylinder with stagecoach holdup scene. Interestingly, the entire gun was silver plated at one point, with strong traces of silver plate still visible on the barrel assembly. Further, this gun is engraved "E.L.S. California 1951 $42.00" on the backstrap. This revolver comes with extensive provenance from Herb Glass Junior, Red Jackson, and Ben Ames Williams, all notable Colt collectors. The revolver first shows up in the 1959 Jackson Arms catalog of the Ben Ames Williams collection, listed as item 457; interestingly, it also notes that the gun was featured in "True Magazine some three of four years ago"; a December 1954 copy of Sports Illustrated, where the revolver is featured as part of the article "New Interest in Old Colts"; a copy of "Modern Man" hunting annual magazine where this revolver is featured in the same spread, this time as part of an article titled "Peacemaker: America's Most Famous Gun"; letter from Jeff Millet to Tom Martin, talking about finding this gun in an old Jackson Arms catalog, the mention of the gun in True Magazine; a letter from Herb Glass to Tom Martin discussing this gun and how he bought it twice, the second time from Red Jackson in the 1970s (apparently, Red Jackson also had his hands on it twice!); finally is a photo of this gun with a leather holster with a carved flap. CONDITION: Metal is essentially gunmetal grey with aforementioned traces of silver on barrel assembly and rammer, some minor marks from handling and storage, and some dings around wedge. Straps with significant amount of the silver plating, approximately 85-90%, with a crisp inscription only somewhat softened by age. Bore is very good with strong rifling and some minor areas of pitting. This is a very interesting revolver with a ton of character and ties to some of the best Colt collectors of all time.
Caliber/Bore
.31 Percussion