A Colt "London Agency" Cased Peacemaker ... (pics)

[RattlesnakeJack]

Having recently taken some pictures of a little project I completed a few years ago, I thought there might be some interest on this board.

While the Colt British connection (via the his aggressive UK marketing of his early percussion revolvers, and the Colt factory operated in England from early 1854 through the end of 1856) is relatively well know, Colt in fact maintained a London Agency from at least 1851/52 until 1904, and many of his cartridge models, including the Model 1873 Single Action Army revolver (often also called the "Peacemaker") were marketed in the United Kingdom. Many revolvers sold to British customers were cased, in styles distinctive to the London Agency.

What you see in the pictures below is a casing of one of my reproduction Colt Model 1873 revolvers (as used in cowboy action shooting) which I did up in the most common style offered by the London Agency, using a reproduction label which which was available. In addition to the "Pall Mall address" label, other distinctive features of this style of casing include the finger-jointed oak case (regretfully, I did not have any quarter-sawn oak - which was the most common material used in the original cases), the exposed flathead brass screws securing the top, the round brass escutcheon inset in the lid (engraved for me by a jeweller friend with an ornate "GHR" monogram of his own design), the lock design and positioning, the interior layout, the accessories included, and the serial number of the cased revolver stamped into the inner case frame to the right of the lock inset. (Of minor interest: I discovered that if my repro revolver's serial number was an original Colt number, that would place the year of manufacture as 1883, the year Medicine Hat was founded.)

Most of my information, and pictures for reference for this project, came from "Colt Peacemaker British Model", one of a series of books on different "Peacemaker"variations published by Keith Cochran, and "Colt - An American Legend" the epic work by R.L. Wilson, originally published to commemorate Colt's 150th anniversary in 1986.

This project represented a real mating of my two primary firearms interests - Canadian/British historical firearms, and "old west" firearms/cowboy action shooting.

[SIR WILLIAM]

WOW!  That is magnificent!  I have been debating transitioning to all British firearms myself.  My collection consists of a Webley, a Enfield revolver and a S&W revolver.  My Rugers are going to have to serve as "ringers" for Colts.

[Standpat Steve]

Howdy Rattlesnake Jack,

That's a nicely done piece of furniture, upholstry and all. I'm surprised that the originals had all those brass screw heads showing on the top, not generally the style of the era, but decorative none the less. A great looking project!

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[RattlesnakeJack]

Thanks for the kind words, Gents!

Standpat Steve: my references even specifically mention that it is "correct" for the slots in the screwheads to be "every which way", (i.e. not nicely aligned with the edges of the case, or whatever) - just as you see in my reproduction.  (If you have ever made the mistake of overtightening a brass screw, you'll know why! )

[Standpat Steve]

Howdy Rattlesnake Jack,

"If I ever over-tightened a brass screw" you must be joking . . . I try to line up the hexes on allen heads and bolts. I went out and bought both an inch pound and a foot pound torque wrench, just to keep from overtightening bolts in aluminum heads of various engines. I always think: 1) it can go just a little bit more, 2) it's almost lined up, 3) even a little more won't hurt, 4) I can get away with tightening up one more time . . . yeah, I think I know what you're driving at<G>.
though,   
Beautiful box, sets off your revolver real nice.

[RattlesnakeJack]

Standpat:
Further to the "exposed screwheads" discussion, I am unfortunately unable to scan any pictures of original Colt single Action London Agency cases, since my scanner is currently on the fritz.

A quick online search didn't turn up any images of a SAA casing, but I did find a listing for a London Agency cased 1861 Colt Army percussion revolver.  Such earlier cases are quite similar to the ones used later for cartridge revolvers - and this one (other than being dimensionally longer) is a fairly good illustrative example showing the placement of the escutcheon plate on the lid, finger joined corners, exposed screwheads, etc...



Mind you, my casing certainly lacks the patina and other indicia of age!

[Standpat Steve]

Howdy Rattlesnake Jack,

Clearly your box and the original version scanned in the post above are of the same style. More surprising to me, than the screwheads not being lined-up, is the fact that they are visable at all.The joiners art was developed to a high degree in the original's time period, and widely admired. I always think of items of that type & era, as either being shipping crates or furniture, with no middle ground. Obviously, this is not so-your original sample and copy display the middle ground. A reminder of the reality of the era, not my fictiionalized, cleaned-up, idealised version.

Thanks for scanning in the original, it makes yours all the more interesting.