Sam Colt's "last improved moddle" (COLTS SPELLING) 1847 WHITNEYVILLE/WALKER
Guns International #: 100379593 Seller's Inventory #:
Category: Antique Pistols - 1500-1850 - Colt Revolvers - Antique
Seller's Information
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Seller: BOB ALOO
Member Since: 7/10/13
First Name: Robert
Last Name: Hanson
State: Oklahoma
Zip: 74834
Country: United States
Phone: 405-240-3604
Number of Active Listings: 0
Total Number of Listings: 4
Seller: Private Seller
Return Policy: 3 day inspection and return policy on used guns.
Payment Types Accepted: cashier check
Description:
History
Lost in history, Colt's model was found in June of 1996 on an Oklahoma Land Run homestead from the days of the Old West. It carried a mysterious serial number that baffled modern firearms historians. In 1998, Lee Good, Director of the J.M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum in Claremore, Oklahoma, reiterated, "I can’t tell you about the number, I wasn’t there, all I can say is the gun is correct!" Not a single Colt historian or firearms expert could explain the unusual serial number. That is, until Sam Colt himself appeared through his own records to give his explanation for the unique number. Complete authentication and documentation is recorded in Robert J. Hanson’s book, "The Ghost of Sam Colt," Tate Publishing, 2012.
The unique date/serial number, 8 1 7 3 3, is now believed to be Sam Colt’s claim of his right of propriety as the inventor to go aside from the assignees of his 1836 patent by virtue of his prior August 17, 1833 patent office Caveat.. Colt most likely made this claim to Eli Whitney Jr., (son of the cotton gin inventor and proprietor of Whitney Arms,) so that he could circumvent the rights of the assignees, The Patent Arms Company, and manufacture his patented revolvers on his own. His claim of priority, Hanson writes, was probably marked on the "last improved moddle," at the insistence of Whitney, after Whitney received the threat of a judicial inquiry into Colt’s rights from the president of the bankrupt Patent Arms Company, Judge Thomas Addis Emmet of New York City.
Later, Colt’s claim of priority made to Whitney in 1847, appears to have become a detriment for his legal counsel’s argument of, "first inventor of the specifications he claims," during the patent infringement trial of Samuel Colt vs The Massachusetts Arms Company. This case was heard in Boston Circuit Court beginning June 30th, 1851, with U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice, Levi Woodbury presiding. As a result, Colt’s "last improved moddle," marked with his claim of priority over The Patent Arms Company in 1847, simply disappeared. So, what happened to the gun?
Inventor Samuel Colt’s very first practical six-shooter is believed to have been entrusted to the care of his friend and former Texas Ranger, Ben McCulloch. McCulloch was a close friend of Colt and the first known man to receive a pair of inscribed pistols from the Inventor to the recipient. After Confederate General Ben McCulloch was killed on the battlefield on March 7th, 1862, at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, the gun is believed to have been looted from the Generals wagon back at Camp Stephens. It appears, Hanson writes, the culprit who stole the gun was Pvt. David Franklin "Frank" Moore of Confederate General Stand Watie’s, 2nd Cherokee Mounted Volunteers. General Watie is said to have been dismayed when he learned that Confederate Indians had looted their own Confederate camp.
Unaware of the guns importance, it seems this Walker remained in Pvt. Moore’s possession and was likely taken upon his death in 1915 by his sister, Amanda, the mother of Pvt. Moore’s namesake, Franklin. Amanda had pioneered west from Arkansas during the second Oklahoma Land Run in 1891 and homestead on the land where the gun was found. At the time the gun was discovered its parts had been fastened together in such a manner as to indicate a juvenile attempt to hold the gun together. It appears, Hanson believes, the gun was last used as a toy and left for lost sometime between 1933 and 1948, on the old family homestead.
In addition, a die tool mark "N" is found on the bottom of the casehardened frame. This letter "N" is believed to be the mark of assurance by S.W. Noble that the frame had been casehardened. Noble is listed in Whistney’s ledger as "forger" at Whitney Arms in February and March of 1847, the time in which the "last improved moddle" was crafted.
Sam Colt’s letter of authenticity, that this Walker is his "last improved moddle," was written by himself on March 31, 1847. In this letter to Capt. Walker, Colt writes about the custom die tools he ordered to stamp the pistols. This excerpt from Colt’s letter to Walker is reprinted with Colt’s own spelling, "notwithstanding I have gut up all the dyes Tools &c for stamping the 1000 Pistols to the different companes of your regiment as directed by you - Presuming the same will Come in use hereafter in carreing out the further orders I am willing & glad to do aney thing that will meet your wishes." Payment for these custom die tools is likely Whitney’s entry in the "Account for Pistols" on March 30, 1847, (Draft pd for Dies 50.00.)
Colt had intended the 1000 contract pistols be stamped with the die tools he had "gut up," but, the contract pistols are found to be stamped with a standard set of die tools from the period. Why is that? Upon inspection of the die tool marks on this Walker pistol it is obvious, even to the untrained eye, why these poorly crafted die tools which Colt had "gut up" were not suitable for use on the contract guns. The return of Colt’s custom dies to New York along with money, presumably for a standard set of die tools from the period, is likely noted in Whitney’s ledger on April 8th, 1847, (Dies sent N York 30.00.) Colt’s "last improved moddle," is the only Whitneyville/Walker known to be marked with Colt’s signature die tools.
This Walker is being sold with Hanson’s companion book #1.
SOLD