This colorful old S&W revolver that came in from Montana.  6" barrel.  Caliber .44 S&W Russian.  SN# is in the 18,000 range. Sorry, no story on it, but it has lots of character showing lots of holster and carry wear.  The engraving has nice flowing floral patterns on the side of the frame, cylinder, and barrel lug while the more contoured areas are punch dot type engraving like you find on Merwin and Hulberts.  The engraving is worn just like the gun and has been there since new.  In collecting 19th century American guns, there are basically three tiers of engraving.  The most desirable being factory engraving, followed by New York/dealer type engraving, and then there is non-original modern or contemporary engraving. This one appears to be dealer or New-York style engraved....so its original 19th century work from when the gun was new...just not from the factory.  During the 19th century, the vast majority of engravers live in New York, NY....even the masters.  The factories usually employed the best engravers while the dealers often ordered standard guns or ones "in the white/soft" and had them engraved by their apprentices.  The work on this revolver is quite good but in our opinion, not from the hand of a master.  However, we will guarantee this is original 19th century dealer type engraving...and not a modern knock-off.  This can also be lettered through S&W to find out where it originally shipped and what configuration it left in. 

Overall condition is NRA Antique Good with a dark brown patina.  Markings and engraving are legible and visible but partially worn due to many years of carry wear.  The grips are in good+ to very good shape with no chips, cracks, or repairs.  Note:  There are a couple of scratches on the left grip that show up in the photographs giving the impression they could be cracks....these are just a couple of scratches in the hard rubber. Action works properly.  Ejector still works...albeit a little slowly due to the coil spring being a bit worn. Barrel to frame lock-up has a little bit of play.  Bore is still in Very Good shape....a tad frosty but nice rifling, not dark, and almost no pitting. We were surprised to see a bore this good on a gun with so much carry wear.  A real cowboy gun right out of Montana! 

Item# 0884

SOLD