Guns International #: 102360271
Seller's Inventory #: 228163

Category - Colt Revolvers - Antique - Antique Revolvers - Percussion

Category
Colt Revolvers - Antique
Antique Revolvers - Percussion

GUSTAVE YOUNG FACTORY ENGRAVED COLT Model 1849 .31 POCKET Revolver Antique 1856 Manufactured with ANTIQUE IVORY Grips

Description:
GUSTAVE YOUNG FACTORY ENGRAVED COLT Model 1849 .31 POCKET Revolver Antique

1856 Manufactured with ANTIQUE IVORY Grips

Here we present an antique Gustave Young Factory Engraved Colt Model 1849 Percussion Pocket Revolver, made in 1856 in Hartford, Connecticut. Gustave Young was one of many German immigrants who came to the United States and worked in the firearms industry. However, Young’s talents were most assuredly in engraving and his style set him apart from his contemporaries. This influx of German engravers starting in about 1850 was perhaps the beginning of what R.L. Wilson has called the “golden age of arms engraving in America”. Other names such as Bodenstein, Helfricht, Nimschke, and several Ulrichs would also make their enormous contributions to the craft, imparting their Germanic influence and become legends as well. Wilson goes on to say that “Young is generally considered to have been the best arms engraver active in 19th Century America.” Young was “Colt’s chief engraving contractor from 1852-1869.”

Young’s famous No. 2 engraving pattern is present and features tight Germanic floral scroll with punchdot background with dog’s head on either side of the hammer. The barrel address and the Colt’s Patent markings are engraved rather than stamped. The serial number is marked with an apostrophe suffix indicating this piece was earmarked at the factory for special treatment such as engraving. A beautiful piece!

The Model 1849 Pocket, the replacement for the Baby Dragoon, was the most widely produced of any Colt percussion pistol. Nearly 340,000 were manufactured during its 23-year production run that ended in 1873. Over 280,000 of these were produced by Colt’s factory at Hartford by the end of the American Civil War in 1865. These were very popular and saw a lot of use on the battlefield, on the home front and in the West. These were some of the smallest, handiest pocket revolvers of the time.

Though worn on this example, one of the most aesthetically pleasing aspects of this pistol is its cylinder scene. Cylinder scenes during this period were common, especially for Colt, not only for their visual appeal, but because it made a revolver more difficult to forge. The scene on the 1849 Pocket is that of a stagecoach robbery. The focal point is the stagecoach drawn by four horses. A woman in a dress is seen framed in the doorway of the side of the coach. The driver is standing alongside wielding his pistol against multiple assailants as the horses rear and struggle against their harnesses. Several of the bandits lay dying on the ground, one tries to control the horses, two are running away and one is in the process of falling dead after being shot. Not a bad way to show interested buyers what a pistol like this would be good for. It did a fine job as a self-defense handgun for the average citizen in 19th Century America.
The overall condition is good. Gray patina with some silver plating present on the trigger guard and backstrap. The action functions although the cylinder indexes & locks up intermittently. The bore is in good condition with strong rifling. Numbers match. Repairs have been made to the antique ivory grips, of which remain solid.

Own the original! This is a legitimate antique and not a reproduction.

Barrel is 5 inches.

Caliber: .31 percussion

Overall condition as seen in photos.

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ancestryguns

$4600

#228163
 

SOLD

Antique: Yes