Thats a really nice repro, looks close to the original. Do the rack numbers correspond with the the units you portray?
No, as you can imagine, with only 800 original revolvers acquired almost 165 years ago, surviving examples are pretty scarce, and as nearly as i can ascertain, the semi-commemorative issue in the 1970s didn't even reach the full number of originals, so I basically took what I could get with both of them.
The originals were acquired for issue only to the established Troops of Volunteer Militia Cavalry in Upper and Lower Canada, but I don't do any cavalry impressions. (Given my size, if I did I'd likely have to portray one of the horses rather than a Trooper!)
My original revolver is marked "U_C" (for Upper Canada) over "B" (the letter desgnation, in order of seniority, of the St. Catharines Troop) over "4" (number 4 of the 50 revolvers issued to the Troop) -
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/600x655q90/922/MdAVHg.jpgInterestingly, all of the Upper Canada revolvers markings applied by the Militia armourer in Toronto were oriented "upside down" on the grips like you see above ... so presumably he laid them out on the bench with the grips "up" ... and the markings applied to the revolvers marked in Montreal are all the other way round, so that armourer no doubt had the revolvers oriented on the bench the other way when he stamped them - i.e. with the grips "down" ... When the distributor was marking the reproduction "commemoratives", they apparently wanted to avoid any suggestion they (or some subsequent seller) were flogging "fakes", so they used e a different font of letters and numbers, of a larger size than the originals, and
also oriented the markings the other way on the grips - i.e. "right way up" on the UC-marked ones, and "upside down" on the LC-marked ones.
(
... as if the Italian manufacturer and proof markings weren't enough to distinguish them ... or the grips couldn't simply be replaced ...
)
When I bought the reproduction some years ago, it was offered in a Canadian firearms website's buy and sell section simply as a reproduction Colt Navy revolver - no mention of it being a London model, nor of the markings on the grip panel. This was before I acquired my original, and I could tell from the photos posted that it was a London model (although the grip markings were not visible in the pictures) so I jumped on it ... with the idea that I could do facsimile markings on the grip to make a "pseudo Canada Colt" as a place-keeper in my growing collection of Canadian military handguns. Imagine my surprise when it arrive and such markings were already there! It is marked "U_C" over "A" (for the Frontenac County Troop hedquartered at Kingston) over "11" ... (At first, I thought somebody else had simply had the same idea for a personal "one-off", but later learned about the Navy Arms distributor's limited issue back in the '70's and subsequently confirmed that this was one of them.
Of possible interest, here is the Militia General Order of 18 May 1856 directing how the various new weapons acquired for the Militia were to be distributed and marked. Note that about half of the text of the Order is given over to instructions for loading, disassembly, cleaning and reassembly of the "six shooting Colt's pistol" -
And while I'm "on a roll", here is a copy of the receipt given by the Captain of the Essex Troop of Cavalry ("I") for the arms and accoutrements issued for his Troop -